Happy Thanksgiving everyone! I hope you have been enjoying your weekend with family and friends with this fabulous weather. Hopefully you have had a chance to enjoy the great outdoors this weekend and enjoyed the lovely fall foliage and maybe went to a pumpkin patch somewhere. We have so much to be thankful for!
This blog entry will be a bit different from my usual blog entries. For some weeks now, I have watched at all of our clubs how many of our members have pitched in and helped out when needed. Whether it is arranging chairs, helping with refreshments, helping with moving of my equipment, all of these activities really help to ensure the running of our dance days. As an example, as we dance in a different facility on Mondays, I need to transport equipment and refreshments into the hall. Tables and chairs must be setup, and at the end of the day, all of these things must be disassembled so to speak before we go. Because of all the help I receive from everyone present, we are typically leaving between 5-10 minutes after the last dance on the program! I have told the group time and time again, how many hands make fast work at the tasks at hand and I am thankful for you all!
When we dance at Parkdale, we have some of the same issues with refreshments and take down of equipment. We have volunteers to do refreshments at our dances and the next time you attend please thank Ian and Ann on Wednesdays and Brian and Ann on Thursdays for the service they provide setting up and running refreshments. Break times are our time to socialize primarily at these dances and what better way to connect then over coffee. Thanks so much! On occasion, some of our executive members are missing at our dances and we need relief to fill those spots. Coming up this week (and for the next few weeks), Gavin and Pat will be away. Someone is required to run the signin table, and someone is always willing to fill in. Brian and Ann will be filling in and Mike and Eileen as well as Robert and Jean have also filled in from time to time. Thanks for filling the gap! Some of us out there fill in spots where we don’t always notice what they are doing until we see the final product! Such is the case with picture taking or videos. I know from the standpoint of posting pictures on our website, it would be difficult to do without the help of Charlie, Ziggy, Pat Ivay or Pat Black. Cueing at our events does not give me much opportunity to do any picture taking so I thank you personally for adding to our Capital Carousels photo gallery on our website. Thank you! A picture can sometimes say a thousand words! Another form of media which is getting a lot of attention these days is video! For many years, Lyn as been taking videos of some of our dance teaches from visiting instructors and putting them on DVD for our members to view and learn from. Recently, Mike has been working with Lyn and her videos and has created a DropBox link for anyone with internet capability to go to and view these videos! This is an additional learning tool for all of us and we certainly thank Lyn and Mike for all their work on this! I will be adding a link for this on our website and I will let you know when that is completed. Although I am capable of putting up and taking down the cueing equipment, I often have help and in particular with the takedown and put away of the speakers and stands. John has helped me for many years with this aspect. I know I don’t thank you often enough, but thank you. Also, Aurele, Peter and Arlo just see the opportunity and help and many thanks to you as well. It seems anytime, we need help just around the general hall for special events, we have many people who will pitch in and help. Whether it’s kitchen help we need for potlucks, chairs and tables to be assembled, garbage pickup, taking down decorations, moving or just taking down my equipment-we always have many people on hand who just help out! Thank you!!
I have sat here the past couple of minutes and just thought of all the things that go on with our club and all the tasks that people just instinctively help out with. I know there are probably other instances and people out there that I have missed out on and for that I apologize. Please know that to someone, your help really means something and we should all be grateful for such a warm hearted and helpful group of friends!
Best of Thanksgivings to you all! I know I am grateful for all of you in my life!