Project Safe is an organization deserving of some serious Athens love. Executive director Joan Prittie knew that all too well – but sometimes the solution to the problemcomes with a couple cocktails.

“[Dancing with the Athens Stars] was an idea that a friend of mine, Pat Priest, came up with last year. It was one of those ideas at happy hour that was still a good idea the next day,” Prittie said.

“We take 12 people who are well-known in our community, or people who ought to be well-known, and match them with dance instructors around town. They can learn one routine, in any style of dance or music that they chose, and they perform one night at The Classic Center.”

Sunday will be the second annual Dancing with the Athens Stars, with proceeds benefitting the Athens’ violence awareness organization.

“[Project Safe] is a local nonprofit working to end domestic violence through crisis intervention, ongoing support, systems change advocacy, and prevention education,” Prittie said. “Domestic violence is in every community. It’s in so many homes and relationships in our culture.”

Prittie emphasized the importance of supporting Project Safe during an economic downturn.

“What a lot of people don’t realize is that we actually get more calls for help when the economy goes down,” she said. “There’s a kind of domestic violence called ‘situational couple violence’ where the couple doesn’t know how to argue in a healthy way. That kind of violence is extremely sensitive to outside stressers.”

Tammy Gilland, senior director for development of constituent programs at the University by day, was elected as one of the Peoples’ Choice Award winners.

During the summer, Project Safe invites Athenians to go to its Web site and pay $1 per vote to nominate do-gooders in the community to be paired with a dancer and perform.

“I’ve been involved in Project Safe for several years,” Gilland said. “I think they provide a very vital resource to our community to women and children. I felt like [participating] would be fun in addition to benefitting a very worthwhile organization.”

In exchange for donating a great deal of her personal time to the cause, Gilland picked up a few sweet moves from her partner, dancer Chris Garmon.

“I think my coordination and my sense of rhythm has gotten better,” Gilland said. “I’ve just learned not to really worry about what other people think. As long as I’m having fun, that’s what’s important.”

Gilland expects the audience to enjoy her and her partner’s swing dance routine.

“He and I may not be the most technically correct dancers that you see up on stage, but you will not find another pair having more fun than Tammy Gilland and Chris Garmon.”