Photos via Facebook.

The guys of BearDance outdid themselves this year. Last year, the nonprofit organization, which hosts its Big D party during Texas Bear Round Up, raised more than $21,000 for Dallas Bears’ beneficiaries. Yesterday, they presented the community group a check for an astounding $30,000 from this year’s March event. The following was posted on the BD’s Facebook page.

Thanks to a great collaboration between the Dallas Bears who put on Texas Bear Round Up and BearDance and all of our volunteers, we were able to make a $30,000 donation to the Dallas Bears which will be passed through 100% to their designated beneficiaries this year including Youth First Texas, the Greg Dollgener Memorial Fund, and AIDS Interfaith Network. And thanks to all the amazing guys who came out to the biggest BearDance we’ve ever had this past March!

Mark Trimble, one of the BD founders (pictured above at far right), said the guys are thrilled at the these level of donations, but had no idea their bear party endeavor would grow to this.

“This is completely unexpected and way beyond our wildest dreams,” he said.”I hope that this says Dallas is a place where the bear community is thriving, vibrant and welcoming as well as one that’s caring. This isn’t us, it’s the community.”

Trimble added that ticket sales were up 25 percent with a count of 1,660 tickets sold, making it the largest BearDance to date.

The BD guys gave Dallas Bears president a surprise. In a group photo with both BD and Dallas Bears, Davis had not seen the check yet. It was post photo-op that they revealed the check amount to him.

“I cried and I couldn’t speak. And I’m never at a loss for words,” he said. “A hundred percent of that will go directly to the beneficiaries. And that’s not even with money from TBRU. That is a huge chunk of a donation.”

Davis admits while the donation is amazing, he says that working with the BD guys are just great to work with.

“It’s great that the two small groups of volunteers — BearDance and the Dallas Bears— can produce two of the largest bear events in the nation. That makes it all worth it,” he says.

For the remainder of 2012, BearDance is looking to a possible Pride event this fall. The Dallas Bears will host a fundraiser for AIDS Services of Dallas at the Round-Up Saloon on June 1.

“We renamed the teddy bear auction to the John “Spanke” Studer Memorial Teddy Bear Auction to honor the tradition he started many years ago,” Davis said.