Our Longest Day Ballroom Dance for Alzheimer’s event was a big success! I thank every one who supported this event thru ticket purchases, raffles, contributions and Silent Auction purchases. Over 100 people attended this event and over $5,400 was raised. Over 50 local businesses helped to sponsor this event by providing the entertainment, food, advertising, and silent auction items.
Our members and friends volunteered many hours soliciting contributions for the baskets, passing flyers and rallying for attendance, helping with the baskets, decorations, picking up food items, set-up and clean up and manning the ticket table and taking payments. Rosemary Farrell and Robert Rodgers performed an awesome swing dance routine. Everyone enjoyed dancing to music by the Starduster Big Band. Natalie Bankowski from the Alzheimer’s spoke of the importance of a healthy diet – don’t eat anything you can’t pronounce and of the importance of a physically active, mentally stimulating and socially active lifestyle as a means to reduce your risk of dementia.
The Ballroom Dance Preservation Society has restricted their share of the funds earned to creating awareness of the benefits that ballroom dancing has on reducing the risk of dementia. Stay tuned for more as we start consulting with the Alzheimer’s Association and local mental health professionals to implement a program to address reducing the risk of dementia in our local community. I feel very proud of how our members and friends of The Ballroom Dance Preservation Society pulled together to make this a very successful first fundraiser!
For anyone who still wishes to contribute to this event, just click on the Alzheimer tab at the top of the menu bar and you may make a contribution online. You can also see pictures of this event on that page.