World champion ballroom dancers Dimitri and Svetlana Ostashkin provided the entertainment for the evening.
More than 100 people gathered at the Connecticut Association for Children and Adults with Learning Disabilities (CACLD) annual Shining Star Awards and Benefit at the Shorehaven Golf Club in Norwalk, Conn. CACLD honors their Shining Stars for their outstanding contributions to its mission of improving the lives of children and adults with learning disabilities.
World champion ballroom dancers Dimitri and Svetlana Ostashkin provided the entertainment for the evening alongside United States Junior I and II Champions Patryk Ploszack and Anna Kaczmarski, who currently are competing as semifinalists on America's Got Talent. The Ostashkins, who perform in the all star cast of the Ballroom Dancesport Extravaganza, We Are the Champions, have become one of the world's greatest Latin Show Dance performers, pleasing crowds across America with their own choreography. Ploszack, 11, originally from Poland and his partner Kaczmarski, 12, of New York, have been dancing together for six years. The magnificent duo performed their award-winning routines for an appreciative crowd.
Pictured (L-R), Trumbull resident and Shining Star recipient on behalf of Healthnet of the Northeast, Inc., Alice Chaves Ferreira, Westport resident and president of CACLD's board of directors, Peter Maloney and Stamford resident and Shining Star recipient Marianne Bonura
Westport resident and president of CACLD's board of directors, Peter Maloney presented the 2010 Shining Star Awards to Trumbull resident Alice Chaves Ferreira on behalf of Healthnet of the Northeast and Marianne Bonura of Stamford.
Sponsors for the evening included Aquarion, Bloomberg, EMCOR, Fairfield County Bank, The Halpin Foundation, HealthNet, Helen and Ralph Maccarino, People's United Bank, R.D. Scinto, Stew Leonard III Children's Charities and an Anonymous donor.
