On October 4, the NEW Dancing With Our Stars event will take place at EPIC Event Center in Ashwaubenon. The third annual fundraising event, modeled after the popular Dancing with the Stars TV series, features eight local community volunteers or board members who will each dance in support of a charity of their choice. Participants have been working since April to fundraise and learn the dances they will perform.

Our Lives sat down with Dan Terrio, who currently serves as the Director of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion for Milwaukee County, to discuss his participation in the event.

“I started the fundraising portion in April, which was the launch party, and then I started going to weekly rehearsals to learn the dance portion at the end of May,” said Terrio. “All of the charities we are representing are predominantly Northeast Wisconsin-based, but a few are statewide, including the Wisconsin LGBTQ History Project, which is my charity. But I have a deep connection to Northeast Wisconsin because I grew up on the Stockbridge-Munsee reservation not far from Green Bay. I lived in Green Bay for 14 years before moving to Milwaukee.”

Through a combination of individual donations, private donations, corporate foundation grants, and fundraising events, NEW Dancing With Our Stars has raised over $1 Million collectively for local charities and nonprofit organizations. This year, the list of beneficiary organizations includes You Belong, Unity Grief and Education Center, Autism Society of Greater Wisconsin, Play-by-Play Theatre, Big Brothers Big Sisters of Northeast Wisconsin, Wisconsin LGBTQ History Project, We EmpowHER, and Journey to Adult Success.

“All of us are fundraising in an effort to raise as much money as we can by October 4, when we unveil our dances. The person who raises the most money gets the mirror ball fundraising trophy, which is huge. But all of the proceeds I raise go directly to the work of my charity, and right now I’m fourth place. But I have a few more tricks up my sleeve.”

Earlier this month, Terrio held a fundraising event called Sip, Sachet, and SINGo, an LGBTQ+ music bingo event where instead of calling numbers, they play a segment of a song. The categories ranged from ‘Gay Anthems’ to ‘The Music of Cher.’

“I can’t tell you about the dance we’re learning yet,” said Terrio, “but it is one that has historically been performed by two men. So what’s really great about this is that it’s paying homage to LGBTQ+ history, but that we’re also making history with our participation as the first same-sex pairing to perform. It is also the first LGBTQ+ charity that will be a beneficiary of the event.”

Terrio went on to talk about how important this opportunity feels for him both personally and in terms of community involvement. “Being openly gay, growing up on a reservation, and living in Green Bay for so long, I wasn’t really able to be my authentic self,” Terrio stated. “It just wasn’t accepted. I was working in local politics at the time, and working with young people, and it wasn’t an environment where I could be authentically me.

“From about 2018 to 2020, I had a lot of difficult things happening in my life. I was struggling with crippling anxiety. I was doing all of this awesome stuff in the community, but then I’d go home and just feel empty. I bottled it up until the eve of my birthday in 2019. That night, I went down to the Fox River, which is something I always did just to reflect on the year and look toward the future. But that night, I went there ready to take my own life.

“It was a gloomy day, but something happened in that moment. All of a sudden, the clouds subsided and this ray of sunshine came through. It was almost like the universe telling, ‘Your time isn’t up yet.’ It was in that moment that I decided to be honest with myself, and with people.

“A week later, I told one of my best friends that I was gay. I uttered those words for the first time. After that, I got my health in order, lost 90 pounds, and decided to rip the Band-Aid off by doing the gayest thing possible. I did a photoshoot with a friend while wearing a shirt that said, ‘I’m Gay.’”

Terrio posted the photos from that shoot on Facebook and shared a story of himself ‘being real’ for the first time ever, and the post went viral. The NEW Dancing With Our Stars event will take place five years and a week after posting it.

“That moment was freeing for me,” Terrio reflected. “I didn’t realize how much of an impact it had on the young people within the community that wanted so badly to have somebody that looked like them, that loved like them, and that led like them represented in local government or within the community.”

Terrio cites that story as one of the key events that led him to participate in NEW Dancing With Our Stars. His goal is to allow people to see themselves reflected in spaces where normally they would not.

“I think normally, to make people comfortable, they would want me to dance with a woman, but I couldn’t do that,” Terrio said. “I needed to be true to myself, and be the representative for the community that is often not seeing themselves, especially now.

“What’s especially cool about this is the Wisconsin LGBTQ History Project’s involvement. They have a 30-year history in the state, and it is the state’s largest digital collection of persons, places, and moments in gay history that people don’t often talk about. It has been great for them to get exposure in a community like Green Bay, which, if I’m being blunt, can be very conservative. It’s an environment where LGBTQ+ folk often feel like they have to live double lives just to survive. So for them to be able to talk about these moments in history has been lifesaving for a lot of people. Knowing that there’s a resource out there has been incredible exposure.”

But dancing in this event is about more than just community involvement for Terrio. It’s personal. “I’m coming home to do this,” he stated. “I live and work in Milwaukee now. My appointment made history as the first Native American Director in Milwaukee history and the highest ranking two-spirit person in the state, but I don’t forget where I came from. That’s what led me to go back home and do this opportunity, and it has been absolutely incredible and healing for me as well.”

At the time of writing, Terrio is currently in fourth place for fundraising, having raised $33,173.55 for the Wisconsin LGBTQ History Project. Those interested can find the donation page here.