{"id":30108,"date":"2021-10-14T17:51:56","date_gmt":"2021-10-14T21:51:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=30108"},"modified":"2021-10-21T20:18:52","modified_gmt":"2021-10-22T00:18:52","slug":"dancing-with-the-easter-seals-stars-raises-more-than-80000-for-local-kids","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/dancing-with-the-easter-seals-stars-raises-more-than-80000-for-local-kids\/","title":{"rendered":"Dancing with the Easter Seals Stars raises more than $80,000 for local kids"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Over the last 19 months or so, many of us haven\u2019t been able to see our families, meet up with friends and, at least until September, go to school with our peers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This was an unfortunately novel experience for most members of our community, but it is an everyday reality for kids who are living with physical disabilities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For them, a week at summer camp is often a transformative experience but, due to COVID, those opportunities have been slim to none.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But the community \u2013 and six very enthusiastic local celebs \u2013 came together last week to help raise more than $80,000 to send nearly 40 kids to camp next year through Dancing with the Easter Seals Stars.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The annual event, which was back after a one-year hiatus due to COVID, took place last Thursday, October 7, at the Royal Venetian Mansion on Industrial Parkway South.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Among the stars who took the dancefloor with professionals Anastasia Trutneva, Kelly Stacey and Patrick Derry, co-owners of Artistica Ballroom Dance Studios, were realtor Josh Campbell, former Aurora councillor Alison Collins-Mrakas, volunteer Barb Kwapis, Auroran photographer Glenn Rodger, Sean Stephens of Treefrog, and Debra Wilson of the Aurora Chamber of Commerce.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere have been a lot of lonely people, a lot of people stuck inside, and this initiative, this organization, is really helping people who can\u2019t get outside [do so],\u201d said Stephens after finishing his dance. \u201cWe\u2019ve really felt that over the last year, we\u2019ve all had an emotional moment, and these guys [in attendance] helped people who otherwise wouldn\u2019t be able to get outside and that is a beautiful thing.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It costs approximately $2,100 to send a single child to Easter Seals camp for one week. While a single week might not seem like a lot, it can mean the world to campers, including 17-year-old Easter Seals Ambassador Daniella Altieri.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Born with spastic diplegia cerebral palsy, Altieri told the audience that Easter Seals has been with her at every part of her journey \u2013 including an exciting chapter she is looking forward to beginning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cEaster Seals has changed my life in such a positive way\u2026from family camp and the opportunity to be their Ambassador,\u201d she said. \u201cI have grown up with Easter Seals by my side. I\u2019m now preparing to apply for college next year and I will also be applying for an Easter Seals scholarship and will hopefully take Easter Seals with me along the journey to college.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cEaster Seals recognizes that kids [are] looking to be accepted and included. They make it happen every day for kids. To me, camp means accessibility because everything that is at camp I can do and there\u2019s no struggles.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This was a theme shared as well by Charlene Myke, Easter Seals\u2019 Manager for Central Ontario.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou haven\u2019t seen your friends, you haven\u2019t seen your families, and it is coming out on a night like this, it is going to a Jays game, a Leafs game, a Raptor game. It is going to your son\u2019s soccer game, going to your granddaughter\u2019s baseball game, our Easter Seal kids have not had any of that,\u201d she said. \u201cMost of them have been inside for 18 months. Most of them have compromised immune systems and they haven\u2019t been able to see people. They haven\u2019t had the opportunity to go to school. They haven\u2019t had the opportunity to see their therapists. They haven\u2019t had the opportunity to do anything. If we think we have had it tough for 18 months, we\u2019ve got nothing on them or their families. Most of their families\u2026somebody has had to stop working, somebody has had to stay home with the kids, because therapists can\u2019t come into the house, personal support workers can\u2019t come in the house. Our families have been very alone for 18 months, but the magical thing that we have is Easter Seal camp.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt is a place where nobody judges them. It\u2019s a place where nobody says you can\u2019t do anything. It\u2019s where most of them meet their friends. For some of them, it\u2019s the only friends they have. A lot of them don\u2019t get invited to birthday parties, they don\u2019t get invited to sleep overs, they don\u2019t get invited to people\u2019s cottages, they\u2019re very isolated, but camp gives them the opportunity to not be isolated. I chose to make tonight\u2019s [theme] about camp because for the first time ever you probably for the first time ever know what it\u2019s like to be an Easter Seals child because you have been isolated, you haven\u2019t been able to see anybody, you can\u2019t go anywhere, you haven\u2019t gone out. You actually understand what it has been like for our families or kids.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cTonight, you changed lives. You gave a child an opportunity they never would have had without you.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Brock Weir<\/strong>
Editor
Local Journalism Initiative Reporter<\/em><\/p>\n\r\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Over the last 19 months or so, many of us haven\u2019t been able to see our families, meet up with friends and, at least until September, go to school with our peers. This was an unfortunately novel experience for most members of our community, but it is an everyday reality for kids who are living […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":30101,"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_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-30108","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\/2021\/10\/2021-10-14-01.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-7PC","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-09 20:24:16","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\/30108","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=30108"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30108\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30101"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30108"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30108"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30108"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}