{"id":15182,"date":"2016-09-07T17:38:12","date_gmt":"2016-09-07T21:38:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=15182"},"modified":"2016-09-14T15:42:43","modified_gmt":"2016-09-14T19:42:43","slug":"community-builders-hit-dance-floor-for-kids-who-can","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/community-builders-hit-dance-floor-for-kids-who-can\/","title":{"rendered":"Community builders hit dance floor for kids who “can”"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Brock Weir<\/strong><\/p>\n

As summer approached its close, Charlene Myke sat down with one camper in a wheelchair to talk about her favourite part of spending a few weeks in the great outdoors.<\/p>\n

There was some excitement \u2013 and music \u2013 in the air as they chatted, but the camper\u2019s answer surprised Ms. Myke: their dance.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I asked her why it was her favourite part, she said, \u2018Because it is my only dance. Nobody asks me to school dances, nobody asks me to go to proms, nobody asks me to anything,\u2019\u201d recalls Ms. Myke of Easter Seals. \u201cThis was her dance as a teen and it brought me right back home again.\u201d<\/p>\n

When Ms. Myke assembled a roster of community leaders in Aurora and Newmarket to kick off the inaugural Aurora\/Newmarket Dancing With the Stars event to benefit Easter Seals last year, she and her hoofers were dancing for those who can\u2019t.<\/p>\n

This year, however, they are doing it for people like that girl in the wheelchair and others who, thanks to Easter Seals, very much can.<\/p>\n

This year\u2019s crop of community leaders are now in the heat of training \u2013 and fundraising \u2013 ahead of this year\u2019s event, which takes place Wednesday, October 5, at The Manor at Carrying Place. Burning up the dance floor with Patrick Derry, Kelly Stacey, and Anastasia Trutneva of Aurora\u2019s Artistica Ballroom Dance Studio are fitness instructor and philanthropist Andrea Peterson (wife of Newmarket-Aurora MP Kyle Peterson); long-time community volunteer and entrepreneur Brian North; former Newmarket councillor and current businessperson and volunteer Chris Emanuel; videographer Jennifer Buchanan; marketing leader and philanthropist Nikki Pett; graphic designer and self-described \u201cfierce supporter and enthusiast of the community\u201d Rob Clark; and infrastructure entrepreneur Tony Di Pede.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou hear about Easter Seals, but to be able to see it firsthand and seeing how the kids all have this place where they can go and be themselves and not have to worry about their disability because everybody has a disability is huge,\u201d says Ms. Peterson, who had an opportunity to visit the Easter Seals camp earlier this summer, on why she signed up for the challenge. \u201cThey are baking muffins for their camping trip, or they are eating batter out of the bowl, they are taking part in this huge tree trekking thing that I wouldn\u2019t do myself because I would be too terrified, but they are sitting there strong, confident and feeling great about themselves.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey deserve a chance to experience life. When I went to camp, it was a pretty profound experience. Now, Patrick and I am having the best time \u2013 well, I\u2019m having the best time!\u201d<\/p>\n

While Mr. Derry says Ms. Peterson is \u201chaving the best time trash talking everybody else in the competition,\u201d he and his fellow dancers are taking the initiative, for the second year in a row, very seriously. <\/p>\n

\u201cFrom the business side of things, we have always said we want to contribute as much as possible to the community,\u201d he says. \u201cI grew up in a home where my mother always worked with children, specifically children with special needs of many different kinds, taken in many foster kids, has recently adopted two of them, one of whom is autistic. I kind of grew up surrounded by a lot of love and care and a desire to help. This event specifically is something that for me, specifically, and all of us, dancing has been something that has been absolutely monumental in our lives. If it is something that has changed our life, it can change theirs too.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ms. Trutneva agrees, saying they agreed to do it as soon as Ms. Myke approached them.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen the event was done last year, we actually felt very bittersweet about it because as much of our work and time we put into it, there is so much we got back in return,\u201d she says, adding they met some amazing people along the way. \u201cThis year it was absolutely a given that we wanted to do as much as possible that we actually increased the amount of time we\u2019re spending with [the dancers].\u201d<\/p>\n

Their goal, she says, is to make the \u201ccompetitors\u201d feel like they have achieved something through all their hard work, leave the competition better dancers than when they started, and, most importantly, make a difference.\u201d<\/p>\n

Since stepping up to the plate, the dancers have been hitting the pavement fundraising by selling tickets and tables to the event, soliciting support online through their individual webpages, and hitting social media with their dance moves. Mr. Clark has even inserted himself into some of the great dance movies of the last two decades, taking on the mantle left by Natalie Portman in Black Swan. <\/p>\n

\u201cI think stepping outside of your comfort zone is probably a healthy thing from a character-building perspective as well,\u201d says Mr. Clark.<\/p>\n

Adds Mr. North: \u201cLast year I saw the dancers and admired them so much, but I thought there is no way I can step outside my comfort zone like this. As much as I have stubbed [Kelly and Anastasia\u2019s toes] and tripped them, pushed them around, and however much they laugh at me, it is about giving back to the kids and giving them the opportunity to do something fabulous.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is fabulous that we can help them do it and enjoy themselves with whatever they have to work with. They face a lot of challenges in their life and if we can help them a little bit, I think it is great.\u201d<\/p>\n

If you want to be a little fabulous yourself by contributing to a dancer of your choice or securing yourself a place to watch them shake it, head over to www.easterseals.org\/dancing-with-easter-seals-stars-newmarket-aurora. Leading up to the event itself, The Auroran will profile individual dancers.
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Civic and business leaders are gearing up for 2016’s Dancing with the Easter Seals Stars.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":15166,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15182","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general_news","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/2016-09-08-01.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-3WS","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-08-02 08:58:19","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15182","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15182"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15182\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15166"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15182"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15182"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15182"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}