MT. VERNON — A mirrored disco ball trophy is up for grabs again as the community’s finest prepare to dance for a cause.

For the second year in a row, the Girl Scouts of Southern Illinois will bring Dancing With OUR Stars to the King City Aug. 21.

Fashioned after the reality television show, Dancing With OUR Stars is a fundraiser sponsored by GSSI to help raise awareness of the organization, as well as raise funds.

“From all reports, it was a real hit last year,” said Tina Barnard, director of development for GSSI. “Everyone who attended had a great time. It involved members of the community and also raised awareness and funds for our girls.”

“It was an event in which the general community had a very good time,” added Tricia Higgins, GSSI communications and marketing manager. “It was fun and entertaining in supporting the cause of Girl Scouts. And, it was something unique that hadn’t been done before and I think that was a big draw.”

Dancing With OUR Stars will be emceed by Mike Beard, and judged by Brandon Bullard, David Lister, Mary Beth Mezo and Lauren Rue. Judges’ scores provide the first element to the dancers’ scores, with the second element coming from audience participation, information states.

Currently the lineup of dancers includes Rob and Sarah Dyer; Laura Vladetich & the Wow Wows; Bria Ashby — Girls Just Want to Have Fun; Greg Lundius and Rosie Cosens; Conner and Hannah Lundius; Shaquana Woodsen; Cindy Bevis; and Chelsey and Jason Banaskavich with Emily and Jonathan Stanley.

“Our defending champions, Rob and Sarah, really blew the crowd away with their performance last year, and they’re performing again this year,” Higgins said. “I think everyone in the community is anticipating what they’ll do. I myself can’t wait to see what they do.”

Rob Dyer, who is the pastor at First Presbyterian Church, said he is looking forward to competing again.

“Last time, it was like, ‘The pastor is gonna dance,’ I think they thought we’d do a waltz or something,” he said. “We wanted to pick something people could relate to and that would be fun to learn how to dance. So, we chose a Michael Jackson medley and thought that since we grew up watching those videos, we’d love to learn those dances.”

Dyer said for this year’s performance, he and Sarah want to capture “a little bit of what we did last time in songs people recognize that are fun.”

“Because if you enjoy it, it really comes through even if you’re not that great of a dancer, which I’m not,” he joked. “My wife makes me look really good.”

But besides dancing for a good cause, Dyer said preparing for the competition has become more for him and his wife.

“We have a lot of fun with it,” he said. “We practiced at least a couple times a week for two months — it turned into a date night for us. We just had the greatest time. (Our parents) would watch the kids and we’d go practice (at the church). After the kids went to bed, we’d practice. I think we enjoyed the practice as much as the event itself and we’re getting that again now.”

But, despite the side benefit of practicing for this year’s event, Dyer said those who plan to attend will just have to wait until that night to see what he and Sarah will do.

“It is a veil of mystery over our entire routine, and we’re going to keep it that way,” he confided laughingly. “Hopefully people will enjoy the songs and we’ll come up with a few new moves.”

However, he said despite his self-criticism of his dancing techniques, the purpose of the event is just to have fun while raising funds for Girl Scouts.

“This is not my thing,” he said. “It’s like, if you want me to get up and give an hour-long talk — I’m a preacher, yeah I can do that. But dancing? That for me is a vulnerable, going-out-on-a-limb thing. But it’s so much fun and I’m not nervous about looking like a fool, it’s just that you want to go out and do your best and have fun doing it. But yeah, every once in a while you realize people are going to be watching you dance. The neat thing too is, the crowd was just so encouraging of all the acts. And the judges made it a lot of fun, too.”

Tickets for Dancing With OUR Stars are $45 or $450 for tables of 10. Deadline to purchase tickets is Aug. 9.

Those who would still like to participate in the competition are encouraged to do so for $125 sponsorship, which includes two tickets to the event.

Enterprise Rent-A-Car is the presenting sponsor of the event, and Crossroads Community Hospital is the sponsor of the disco ball trophy.

For more information, you may call 242-5079 or e-mail dancing@gsofsi.org.