Boogie with the Stars Celebrities

Deadline for online pledging is December 30th @ 1:00 pm

	Joanne Archer Joanne was born in Germany, and after moving to Canada, lived in several communities of varying sizes across Canada. Joanne began her career in health care in 1977 and has enjoyed a number of different experiences in that career. She moved to Prince George from Victoria in 1999, together with her husband and children. Currently she works for Provincial Health Services of BC as the “Provincial Infection Control Network’s Education and Best Practices Coordinator” (say that three time in a row quickly!). While growing up, Joanne’s passion was in figure skating and she currently attends dance classes at Enchainment Dance Studio, however, Joanne has never had any prior Ballroom Dance experience. She very bravely agreed to participate in the Boogie with the Stars competition, to help the Spirit of the North Healthcare Foundation, something she closely relates to.

	Jennifer Brandle-McCall Jennifer is a BC girl – born and raised in Victoria, she moved to Prince George in 2005 with her husband and two little girls, and as she says, “hasn’t looked back since”. Like so many people that move to Prince George not really knowing a great deal about it’s energy and pulse, she has developed a passion for this city, and a belief in its potential. She has put this passion to good use in her new role as CEO of the Prince George Chamber of Commerce. Without any competitive experience in dance, Jennifer jumped at the chance to contribute to this year’s Boogie with the Stars event. Although her education and background is in Professional Communications, this time she will be communicating through the language of dance with her partner Paul Eberlein, the Cha Cha guru at Dance North here in PG. Jennifer has added a new dimension to the name of her place of work, now affectionately referring to it as the “Cha-Cha-Chamber of Commerce” !

	Dan Denis Dan can certainly claim to be a local, as he has lived in Prince George Since 1970, and says he loves it here more than ever. He is definitely living in the right place, as he is an avid outdoorsman, taking advantage of this region’s finest offerings. Dan spends much of his free time fly fishing, backpacking, and carving decoys, and his newest joy is found in introducing his seven grandchildren to the outdoors. This summer, he guided one of them up Mount Robson. Dan Denis is a founding partner of the successful local advertising company, Concept Design, where as he says, he “excels at nurturing close client relationships, while building effective and creative media campaigns”. Dan admits, dancing has never been on his bucket list – his only previous instruction in how to dance was forcibly bestowed on him by his five sisters during their childhood in Saskatchewan. Dan is the most likable fellow, and a gentleman in the true sense of the word – with his strong commitment to community involvement, Dan was easily “tricked” into agreeing to be a “Boogie Star” in the name of charity, despite his own misgivings regarding his dancing skills. Fortunately, he has found that he is quite enjoying his dance sessions and he only hopes that you will give him bonus points for picking this up at a more mature age!

	Martina Humphrey Martina was born in Brighton, England, but grew up in Toronto. She gradually moved west, attending the University of Calgary before ending up in Victoria where she spent most of her adult life. Martina worked her way up through the ranks of Canada Trust to become manager of the Victoria Branch in the mid 90’s. She must have been doing something right, because she was asked to come to Prince George to supervise the merging of TD Canada Trust – she arrived with her husband Paul and two sons and, as happens to many people, enjoyed the lifestyle so much, they made this their home. Living in a place with serious winters, she learned to Snowboard, but she feels Skiing is much safer! Martina is an incredible lady that volunteers her time to many, many different causes – she belongs to the Yellowhead Rotary, and was Rotarian of the Year for 2010/2011. She agreed to being a “Boogie Star” only because she passionately supports the Spirit of the North Healthcare Foundation, and somewhat secretly admits to looking forward to the time when she can say “I did it!”.

	Tom Sentes Tom is a Prairie boy – born in Regina Saskatchewan, the family later moved to Edmonton. Work eventually took Tom to Vancouver as a successful entrepreneur, and then in the 90’s, a business contact sequester him to help expand the Wood Wheaton GM Dealership here in Prince George as the Commercial Fleet Manager. That fit in with Tom’s approach to life as an avid outdoorsman, with lots of Fly-fishing, Camping and Hiking. Tom is a very energetic person, and soon got involved with various charities and boards in this area, conceived and developed two very successful restaurants in town, North 54 and Cimo’s, as well as moving up to become the Marketing Manager for the Wood Wheaton Group. He has served on many boards, including the Haldi Woman’s Recovery Centre, Baldy Hughes Recovery Centre, and most appropriately for us, he currently sits on the Board of Directors for the Spirit of the North Healthcare Foundation. He believes that dance improves the social community, and wants to promote it more – he has enjoyed partnering with Paz and learning dance so much, that he was convinced to build a dance floor in his own home – he’s sure all those months of practise will pay off!

	Dr. Paul Winwood Dr Paul Winwood is a name we should all be proud to hear in Prince George. Dr Winwood was sequestered into coming to the University Hospital of Northern BC from RBCH, the Royal Bournemouth Hospital in England where he was a well respected Gastroenterologist, a consultant, and head of gastroenterology. Born in Singapore, Dr Winwood grew up in England and completed his doctorate there. He moved to Prince George a few years ago with his family because UHNBC offered his the opportunity to fill an academic role as well as the opportunity to develop teaching and research for the UNBC medical school. Another little bonus in moving here was his love of the outdoors, a feeling shared of course by many Prince George residents. It doesn’t take much to connect the dots to Paul’s reason for supporting the fundraiser by becoming a “Boogie Star”. There is a certain irony here too, as Paul tells us he met his wife at a Ballroom dance in East London. Apparently she was an accomplished Ballroom and Latin dance teacher – he was also very quick to point out that’s as far as it goes – she can dance – he cannot ! Well, we’ll all see about that, won’t we Dr Winwood!