Wednesday, December 12, 2012

Saving the Last Dance for You...



The Lincoln Park Community Shelter was recently given a grant from the Wrightwood Neighborhood Association (WNA) to help fund our Community Engagement Program (CEP). The WNA also gave grants to over 20 other local organizations. To hand out the grants, they invited all of these organizations, along with members of the WNA, to Lincoln Hall for a celebration filled with delicious food, an open bar, and entertainment provided by local children’s groups and schools. As I attended the event, I could not help but feel overwhelmed with gratitude; after all, isn’t it LPCS that should be dancing and singing for the WNA and all of our other generous donors?

My favorite part of the evening was a performance given by about 15 children. These children dressed up and brilliantly performed the entire play of Romeo and Juliet in just under 3 minutes. As a painfully avid Shakespeare fan, this was more than just a delight. The children must have worked tirelessly to learn the lines, make their costumes, and choreograph a fight scene in which all of them mimicked the star-crossed lovers’ bitter end!

Next, a school’s choir sang songs written by their teacher with the purpose of making the audience laugh. This was followed by two separate dance teams who were more eager to perform than they were nervous to be on stage in front of at least 40 strangers.

It amazed me that I could sit somewhere, have baked mac and cheese provided for me, have groups perform and dance for me, and then be given a check at the very end. What a beautifully generous world we live in where this is a regular occurrence!

To the WNA and to everyone else that continues to give time, hard earned money, and skills and ideas to LPCS, I want to thank you. I want to sing for you. I want to perform A Midsummer Night’s Dream in under 3 minutes for you. And most of all, I want to eagerly dance to your favorite song, just to show you how much your contributions mean to everyone at LPCS.

Since I cannot dance for all of you at this time, I will contribute this very embarrassing photo of myself attempting to ice skate for you and hope that it helps to demonstrate just how grateful I am!



Sincerely,

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