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Event History


Dancing for the Kids is the Emerging Leaders Board at Akron Children’s Hospital’s signature event. The first event was held in 2012. Dancing for the Kids features ten local “celebrities” who put on their dancing shoes to help raise money for Akron Children’s Hospital’s Showers Family Center for Childhood Cancer and Blood Disorders.

The concept is similar to the Dancing with the Stars television show. The event traditionally partners with a local dance program to match each participant with a dance professional. Together the dancers and their partners come up with the music and a routine. The performance is held at the Akron Civic Theatre each Fall where more than 700 people enjoy an evening hosted by Keith Kennedy from WKDD’s 98.1 morning show. The show features an opening act of a local dance group, intro videos, dance performances and three judges who always give great feedback to the dancers.

2022 Event Details

2022 Featured Dancers

• Andrew Codner – Akron Children's Hospital Patient
• Tom Peeples – The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company
• Jason Stanford – Cleveland Indians, Standford Baseball Academy, Steel Valley Expos Baseball Club, VFR Homefront
• Caroline Babbit – Akron Children's Women's Board
• Beth Spain – Signet
• Dr. Vanisha Patel – Pediatric Hematologist-Oncologist at Akron Children's Hospital

The Showers Family Center for Childhood Cancer and Blood Disorders at Akron Children’s Hospital provides comprehensive care to children, teens and young adults with all types of childhood cancer, sickle cell disease, hemoglobinopathies and bleeding/clotting disorders, as well as those who require stem cell/bone marrow transplants.

Akron Children’s Hospital Showers Family Center for Childhood Cancer and Blood Disorders ranks in the top third of pediatric cancer centers in the United States in terms of the number of new cancer cases seen each year. On average, we care for 8 newly diagnosed children with cancer each month. About 30 percent of these patients have leukemia, the most common type of childhood cancer, and 25 percent are treated for brain tumors, the second major cause of cancer in children.

As a member of the prestigious Children’s Oncology Group (COG), we participate in the development of National Cancer Institute-approved treatment protocols and offer the most up-to-date cancer therapies. Our cancer program is one of only 12 “Pediatric Cancer Programs” in the country as verified by the American College of Surgeons Commission on Cancer.

For questions, please contact Events@akronchildrens.org.

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