Contrary to Popular Opinion: A Blog
Hello Dancers!
We are so excited to see you at dances this June before our short break in July. Due to trips and limited availability of dance locations, we have changed a couple things about dance schedule over the next couple months. Two changes in June:
Help us grow our contra dance community. Here are a couple ideas:
SVCD Committee Read more and subscribe today.
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Hello Dancers!
First, we are so pleased to share with you that we are sooo close to our insurance fundraising goal! In an exciting turn of events, we've had an anonymous donor step forward and offer to match donations made through the month of April up to $100. This is great news because that will get us so much closer to our goal to fully insure the Dayton and Monday dances. Donate today either via GoFundMe or at one of the dances (just let us know your donation is for insurance). Interested in helping the dance community in other ways? The both dance committees are looking for a volunteer or two who is interested in learning how to set up the sound system. Volunteers are scheduled about once a month and we are definitely flexible. There are also other perks! Contact Reilly or Eleanor for more information. Next, the committee is feeling adventurous again and has endeavored to participate in the Belmont Yard Sale again this year on Saturday, May 6 as a way to fundraise outside the dance community. If you, in your Spring cleaning fever, have come across items you were planning on getting rid of, please consider donating them to our yard sale. Larger items draw the eye, but we've also had a lot of requests for jewelry in the past. Donations may be brought to any dance in April, or dropped off at the Green Hummingbird at 320 S. Main Street in Harrisonburg, or contact Reatha. Not only do we need yard sale items, but we also need yard sale help. If you have a couple hours on either Friday, May 5 or Saturday, May 6, we could really use your help in setting up, running, and/or taking down the yard sale. Let us know if you are ready, willing, and able! Any little bit helps. Can't wait to dance with you soon, SVCD Committee To read the rest of the newsletter, click here. Don't forget to subscribe! Hello Dancers!
It is with great pleasure to report that we have currently raised $500 toward our $800 insurance fundraiser goal. We have been able to purchase insurance to cover dancing at Dayton Learning Center for March and April. Where we're at now, we will only be able to afford insurance for the Saturday Dance for May and June. Please help us reach our goal so we can fully insure the dances. Interested in helping set up a contra dance? The Monday Night committee is looking for a volunteer or two who is interested in learning how to set up the sound system. There are perks! See Reilly for more information. We're always looking for ways to bring new dancers to our community! Remember, if you bring two new dancers with you to a dance, you all get in 1/2 price! Bring your neighbors! Invite those friends! Drag your coworkers along! This upcoming weekend is PACKED with contra dances. Dance to Toss the Possum in Staunton on Friday evening at Trinity Episcopal Church at 7:30 pm. (There is a carpool leaving at 6:30 pm from the Wolfe Street Parking Deck if you'd like to share a ride down to the Staunton dance). Then join us on Saturday, March 11 at Dayton Learning Center at 8:00 pm. Then, pop on over to Greenwood on Sunday for lovely evening dance at 6:30 pm and don't forget about Monday's Club Contra dance at Massanetta Springs in Harrisonburg at 7:00 pm. So much contra! Hope to see you at one or more of the dances! Can't wait to dance with you soon, SVCD Committee Read our full newsletter here. Please subscribe! Hello Dancers!
We hope you all had a lovely time at the Shindig the other weekend. It was so wonderful to see so many of you! What a dance! Now, for some complicated news. We recently received notice from Dayton Learning Center that informed us that we need to have proof of insurance to continue dancing there (or at any Rockingham County Public Schools facility). We've run into this issue before when looking for new locations for the Monday dance, but managed to find dance locations that did not require insurance, although they are far from ideal. So, thus far, we've avoided the added expense of annual insurance. The SVCD Committee met this week to discuss what to do. After much debate, we decided that it would be in both dance's best interest to pursue insurance. We don't do this lightly, but feel that having insurance will allow us access to better dance locations, and at least allow us the opportunity to finish Dayton Dances through June at DLC. We are asking for this community to circle the wagons and help us keep our dances going. You know that over the past year we have done a lot to fundraise, advertise, get new dancers, and reduce expenses, but this is an expense we just don't see a way to avoid. We hope that through incurring the expense of insurance, we can locate both dances at appropriate dance halls and expand our dancing communities. We need your help though. We need to raise $800 for our annual insurance (which will cover all dances for Dayton and Monday), membership to the Country Dance and Song Society (which we need to get the best insurance rate we could find), and our non-profit renewal cost. How you can help:
With all this going on, our intention is to still have the February Dayton Dance at the Dayton Learning Center however, please stay tuned for updated locations which will depend on available funds each month. Keep on dancing, SVCD Committee Read the rest of the newsletter here. Don't forget to subscribe to receive our monthly emails in your inbox! Happy Hiatus Dancers!
I feel like it has been forever since I've danced with you and I am so excited to see you at Massanetta on Monday, January 9 for our first dance of the new year! I hope you had a restful holiday break and are chomping at the bit to get back into the "swing" of contra. Oh, I am on a roll tonight; that is not my first pun of the day...nor my worst. If I can direct your attention to schedule above, you'll notice that we have a new location for the 1st and 3rd Mondays! This is not a drill. This is not a drill. It's the real deal and if you go to Massanetta on January 16 you will be a very lonely dancer because we'll all be missing you while we dance at Emmanuel Episcopal on Main Street in Harrisonburg. Also, notice there is no Saturday Dayton Dance in January because we all will be going to the SHENANDOAH SHINDIG! Yeah! If you haven't registered yet for the Shenandoah Shindig...GET ON IT because registration days are numbered. We are just one week away from awesome music by Mean Lids, Sligo Creek Stompers, and Go Figure, and calling by Gaye Fifer and Shawn Brenneman. Also scheduled is a Rush Fest and waltz, swing, clogging, and calling workshops! Don't miss out on this amazing dance weekend scheduled for January 13-15, 2017. Register today! The Shindig is also looking for people willing to host some lovely, super-nice, out-of-town dancers for the dance weekend. If you have a spare 'oom, pull-out couch, cot, floor space, etc. and would be willing to demonstrate Harrisonburg-area hospitality, please contact Michelle or Sandy at [email protected]. Finally, we just started a GoFundMe campaign to continue to raise support to replace and expand our 20+ year old sound system. Our 50-50 raffle got us part of the way there, but we still need new microphone stands, connectors, cables, and microphones. Consider donating but you can also help by spreading the news. Share with friends and neighbors. Share on your Facebook wall. Visit our campaign by following this link. As we are a non-profit organization, donations are tax deductable. Sounds like a win-win to me. As always, happy dancing! SVCD Committee Read the rest of the newsletter here. Don't forget to subscribe! I apologize for the Monday Dance location confusion over the past weeks. We thought we had the new location confirmed but turns out we didn't quite thus the dates and locations in the notice sent out were incorrect. We did our best to keep Contra Corners, Facebook, and the website updated but we do realize there was still some confusion. Thank you for your patience.
We are still working on arranging a new location for the 1st and 3rd Mondays. You'll notice on the calendar above that in January the location for the January 16th dance is TBA. Stay tuned at the upcoming dances, to Contra Corners, Facebook, and the website for updated location information. Also, a huge thank you to the support you all have been giving since we changed the dance rates. The decision was not easy, but we feel it is one way we can keep this dance going and meet the needs of the callers and musicians. We appreciate all of you who have been coming out to the dances and are glad you are a part of this dance community. If you haven't registered yet for the Shenandoah Shindig...GET ON IT! We're just about one month away from the 2017 Shenandoah Shindig. We have music by Mean Lids, Sligo Creek Stompers, and Go Figure, and calling by Gaye Fifer and Shawn Brenneman. Also scheduled is a Rush Fest! Don't miss out on this amazing dance weekend schedule for January 13-15, 2017. Registertoday (especially because Early Bird Registration ends on December 5). The Shindig is also looking for people willing to host some lovely, super-nice, out-of-town dancers for the dance weekend. If you have a spare 'oom, pull-out couch, cot, floor space, etc. and would be willing to demonstrate Harrisonburg-area hospitality, please contact Michelle or Heather at [email protected]. Finally, we just started a GoFundMe campaign to continue to raise support to replace and expand our 20+ year old sound system. Our 50-50 raffle got us part of the way there, but we still need new microphone stands, connectors, cables, and microphones. Consider donating but you can also help by spreading the news. Share with friends and neighbors. Share on your Facebook wall. Visit our campaign by following this link. As we are a non-profit organization, donations are tax deductable. Sounds like a win-win to me. As always, happy dancing! SVCD Committee Subscribe and read the rest of the newsletter here. Ok, maybe I was really excited about October last month, but, to be honest, November is probably my favorite month. Here are a couple awesome reasons:
1. There are five (yes, FIVE) dances in November. How about that? Those are five opportunities to be with your dance community and have an evening of fun and music. Bring your friends because we love meeting new people and bringing them into our community. 2. We're three months (yes, THREE) away from the 2017 Shenandoah Shindig. This is so exciting! We have music by Mean Lids, Sligo Creek Stompers, and Go Figure, and calling by Gaye Fifer and Shawn Brenneman. Also scheduled is a Rush Fest! Don't miss out on this amazing dance weekend schedule for January 13-15, 2017. Register today. Or tomorrow. Or Wednesday. The point is...soon! We just started a GoFundMe campaign to continue to raise support to replace and expand our 20+ year old sound system. Our 50-50 raffle got us part of the way there, but we still need new microphone stands, connectors, cables, and microphones. Consider donating but you can also help by spreading the news. Share with friends and neighbors. Share on your Facebook wall. Visit our campaign by following this link. Please note that the dance on Monday, October 24 is at Dayton Learning Center. The dance starts at 7:00 p.m. sharp so we can get in as many dances as possible. Hope to see you soon! SVCD Committee Read the rest of the November 2016 newsletter here. Don't forget to subscribe! Hello hello!
"I'm so glad to live in a world where there are Octobers." L. M. Montgomery really said it right and the Shenandoah Valley is particularly blessed with fall foliage and crisp (read: perfect dancing) weather. I don't have much to tell you this month. We pretty much wrapped up most of our special events last Saturday but if you insist on keeping up with the...contrarians (?) here are a couple updates! Our second Dayton Days Contra Showcase was very successful. Many festival attendees stopped by to listen to the music and watch the dancing. Some brave souls even jumped in and tried it! We hope to see some of them at future dances. Thank you to Lorie Lichtenwalner, Mike Williams, Jim Harrington, and Joe Showalter for providing toe-tapping, crowd-gathering tunes. Haven't jumped on the t-shirt train yet? Well, now is your chance. T-shirts are now $10. Get your t-shirt at any SVCD dance. Don't you...forget about me. And by me, I mean the survey! If you haven't already, please take a couple minutes to give us some feedback about your thoughts and experiences with our two local dances. The link to the survey can be found here and on the Shenandoah Valley Contra Dance and Monday Night Facebook groups. You only need to complete the survey once. Your response is invaluable! Thank you for your help with this. Dance on. SVCD Committee Read the rest of the October 2016 newsletter here. Don't forget to subscribe! Salutations!
Happy September! Do you know what this means? I'll tell you: Dayton dances are BACK! Now, not only do you get to dance every Monday, but you also get the opportunity to dance on the awesome floor at the Dayton Learning Center on the second Saturday each month. The first dance of the season is Saturday, September 10 and you don't want to miss it. The terrific Tom Hinds is calling to the glorious tunes of Go Figure. We want to see you there so put it on your calendar now! The Raffle Ticket fundraiser to support upgrading the sound system is only for about one more month. Get your tickets now! They're only $1 each; how can you say no? Or get your friends to get their tickets now...or your neighbors...or your cat? Whatever works for you! Maybe you don't want a raffle ticket but want to contribute to the sound system fund? Too bad! We only take raffle ticket purchases! Just kidding, of course we take donations! Stop by the welcome table at any dance to purchase your raffle ticket(s). We are planning on participating in the Belmont Yard Sale on September 10 from approximately 5:30 am to noon-ish. We primarily need a donation of your time, although if you are desperate to donate something to the sale we won't turn it away! Send us an email or see Reilly at a dance to sign up for a volunteer time slot. (Reilly: I promise I won't ask you to be there all day with me unless you want to!) Throughout the month of August, bands and callers have been donating their compensation to the Jack Williams Memorial Scholarship. This scholarship helps a local student from Broadway High School attend James Madison University. We are so pleased to announce that this Harrisonburg dance community has raised $267.00 to donate to this scholarship. Much love to Michael Williams and Julia Merkel, and family: fine musicians and friends of this contra community. And finally, the survey is still on! Please take a couple minutes to give us some feedback about your thoughts and experiences with our local dances. The link to the survey can be found here and on the Shenandoah Valley Contra Dance and Monday Night Facebook groups. You only need to complete the survey once and your response is invaluable! Thanks for your help with this! As always, we are so pleased you dance with us and we hope to see you soon! SVCD Committee Read the rest of the September 2016 newsletter here. Don't forget to subscribe! |
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June 2017
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