By Sarah Stultz, staff writer

Moving their feet to dances ranging from the foxtrot to the rumba, nine couples squared off Friday night to raise more than $30,000 in donations for the local chapter of the American Red Cross.

The dancers, who were participating in the second year of the Dancing with the Freeborn County Stars, came from all walks of life to take part in the event.

In the end, Curtis Smith of Arrow Printing, and Roberta Grahn of the Dance Yourself Silly Studio, won top honors with a first place win and the Audience Choice award.

They danced the tango to &8220;Santa Maria.&8221;

Judges commended the couple&8217;s performance, calling it &8220;elegant&8221; and &8220;sassy.&8221;

&8220;I thought it was very impressive,&8221; said one of the judges, Allison Ciota, who is the head Albert Lea High School dance team instructor.

To find the winner, a combination of the judges&8217; scores and the amount of money raised by the couple was taken into consideration.

The No. 1 couple raised more than $5,000.

&8220;I&8217;m just so proud of everybody,&8221; Grahn said. &8220;In my book they all receive 10s.&8221;

In addition to dancing with Smith, Grahn was the instructor for the participants.

She said on average, the dancers spent three hours every week since Jan. 8 preparing for the night. Some spent even more time.

&8220;They&8217;ve been awesome,&8221; she said.

Receiving second-place honors were Cristina Frank and Mike Walker for their theater arts performance to &8220;Tuesday&8217;s Gone.&8221;

Dawn Thompson and Don Anderson received third place honors for their foxtrot performance to &8220;The Cat.&8221;

Other dancers included Diane Clark, Mark Thompson, Ann Glazier, Joey Ray, Laurie Herman, Tim Grahn, Sarah Kirchner, George Rothmeier, Dennis Glassel, Mary Angell, Glen Mathiason and Bev Rothmeier.

Other judges were Jordan Bohonek of Almco KleenTec Inc. and Diane Heaney, the Albert Lea High School choir director.

&8220;It takes a lot of guts to get up in front of 600 people,&8221; Bohonek told the contestants at the end of the night. &8220;Each one of you did a quality job.&8221;

Jeanie Opdahl, executive director of the local Red Cross chapter, said she was pleasantly surprised to see how much money was raised from the event, as this year about $20,000 more in donations was raised than last year.

&8220;It&8217;s just been great,&8221; she said. &8220;The Red Cross sincerely appreciates all the help.&8221;

All the money raised will fund Red Cross programs in Freeborn County such as disaster response and preparedness, education (water safety, CPR, first aid, baby-sitting) and Armed Forces emergency services.

Opdahl said the organization will definitely have a third Dancing with the Freeborn County Stars because of the success of the event.