Harvey Milk Civil Rights Academy is seeing Stars!

News Alert: Small SF Public School Dances with the Stars

CONTACT: Wendy Lee
School Volunteer, Parent and Dance-A-Thon Coordinator
(415) 205-5967
barcelonafamilyatyahoodotcom

San Francisco’s Harvey Milk Civil Rights Academy is seeing Stars! The public school recently hosted its First Annual Dance-A-Thon to raise funds for the school by getting kids, teachers, staff, parents and friends to get up and dance! Two Star Dancers from the hit TV show, Dancing with the Stars, Alec Mazo and Edyta Sliwinska, are making time in their busy schedules to support the cause. Alec and Edyta have invited 20 winners from the Dance-A-Thon to a private dance class lesson at their SF studio on Wednesday, June 2, 2010 at 6:00 pm. They have also invited the entire school to their Ballroom Showcase Performance at Zellerbach Hall in Berkeley on Sunday, June 6, 2010 at 5:00 pm.

The school, like all other public schools, is facing massive budget cuts that threaten to eliminate core programs. As part of the Dance-A-Thon efforts to help raise necessary “Milk Money,” the school volunteers contacted and received donations from many beloved SF Castro neighborhood merchants including Cliff’s Variety, Spike’s Coffees & Teas, Buffalo Whole Foods, Escape from New York Pizza, and BiRite Creamery. And in a special effort to find dance-related prizes, the volunteers contacted and received an outpouring of donations from many Bay Area dance studios and teachers including ODC/Rhythm & Motion, Beyond Blues, Cheryl Burke Studio, Mark Foehringer Dance Project, Lizz Roman Pilates, and Dance SF Salsa Academy.

The private lesson from Alec and Edyta at their Genesis DanceSport Academy along with the free tickets to their Zellerbach Performance the “2010 Genesis Ballroom Showcase” was icing on the cake! It’s not often that these city kids get to connect with TV royalty. And to attend an event by special invitation makes it even more sweet. The 20 kids that won the private dance class all logged dance time during the week-and-a-half-long Dance-A-Thon helping raise money through sponsors who donated dollars per minute for dancing. The Zellerbach tickets were offered to everyone who participated in the school’s event – which is the entire school – since the school’s Principal Christina Velasco authorized a daily morning circle dance for each of the eight days of the event. Every morning the kids danced along to a daily dance which included some standard moves like the hokey pokey, some classic dances like the electric slide, and some cultural experiences like a Hawaiian hula performance. These dance moves were taught by parents, teachers and the principal (photos and video of the kids dancing on the schoolyard are available upon request). From the beginning, the focus for the event was not only to raise money, but also to celebrate dance for its’ art, exercise, and community-building aspects. The eight-day event finished with a three-hour dance party where the winners were awarded their prizes to a room full of parents excited themselves to get a chance to meet some dancing superstars. Judging by all standards – the event was a huge success – and obviously dancing stars have big hearts for struggling public schools.

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