Dear Friends,
Happy 60th Birthday Bonnie Kirkpatrick!
Please join us for our next Stop Drop and Dance fundraiser class this Tuesday, October 27th from 9:30am-10:45am! Bonnie Kirkpatrick is turning 60 years YOUNG, and for her birthday celebration, she wanted to give back to a non-profit organization that she used to work at, and is now on the Board of!
"The mission of Bridge the Gap is to provide comprehensive educational, social and emotional resources to underserved students in Marin County. Our goal is to ensure that all students graduate high school and achieve their greatest potential through college completion or other pathways to economic sustainability and independence. Our vision is for all students to achieve their greatest potential with equitable access, opportunities, and choice."
Even if you cannot make the dance class, please consider supporting Bonnie's fundraiser and helping us make an impact for students in our county! Thank you for your generosity!
The theme will be to wear a school or college tee shirt!
Halloween Class this Saturday!
What is the candy bar you cannot resist?
For me, it's 100 Grand. My girls know that when they go trick-or-treating and see a 100 Grand, they will get it just for me because it's not a common candy bar that is passed out! Which also means... I eat a lot of 100 Grand for the next few days after Halloween! Woohoo!
So... how lucky are we to have Stop Drop and Dance class ON Halloween morning! Join us as we work off some of those inevitable 100 Grand calories by dancing together....
IN COSTUME!
Wear something that your kids have worn in the past or reuse an old costume of your own. If you don't have anything, you can rip up a shirt and rub black eye shadow over your face to be a zombie. Easy peasy.
We'll do some of our usual Stop Drop and Dance songs, but we'll also add in a Thriller line dance and why not, a few hip hop Bust a Move line dances too (that I didn't get to do over the weekend at our beach party!).
It will be a fun class to invite new friends to, or as always is the case, your kids are free when they come with you to dance!
Sign up to join us in-person or on Zoom here!
PWG Holiday Party on November 18th!
Barb Untermann is the "creative force and lead designer behind the famous Christmas House at West End Nursery in San Rafael" and for the 3rd year, we are having our Power With Grace community holiday party there on Wednesday, November 18th from 6-8pm.
We will have a packed schedule with mingling and eating, ornament shopping, small group breakout sessions, and a special show, so please plan to come on time and stay for the two hours if you can!
We will share more information and the official sign up in next week's newsletter, including the outfit theme, what to bring, and our special guest!
Please mark your calendars and save the date!
Happy Birthday Megan Conley!
Last Thursday, we got to do an impromptu Stop Drop and Dance birthday class for Megan Conley! A little bird (thank you Katie Pohl!) told us a few days beforehand that it was her birthday on October 20th, so we reached out and did some PPP - positive peer pressure - for Megan to agree to a dance celebration.
Megan chose our playlist songs and danced up front most of the time! Later on that day, she celebrated her birthday by eating yummy dumplings from Yuanbao Jiaozi in San Francisco… mmm mmm good! Hao chi (did you know she is fluent in Mandarin?)!
Happiest birthday Megan!
When is YOUR birthday??? Please share it with us and treat yourself to a little bit of well-deserved self-love and DANCING!!!
We're from the NORTH Bay!
After class on Thursday, some of us stayed to record a short dance to LaRussell's "I'm From the Bay" song! His song mentions some of the different cities in the Bay, but Marin is not included so we're here representing!
If you don't know this song, he has gone around to different high schools in NorCal to shoot music videos and it is so cool because the marching bands and dancers get to be featured! Let's get LaRussell to Marin!
We also wore PURPLE as a shout out to the Valkyries for bringing the Golden State WOMEN into the WNBA FINALS 2026! They are 2-2 and their fifth game is tomorrow!
Let's GOOO!!!
An Epic Stinson Beach Dance Party!
Thank you to everyone who was able to make it Saturday to our Stinson Beach Dance Party, only made possible because of our incredibly generous host, Karen Wright, who opened up her dreamy home to 60 women.
We celebrated Lisa Butcher's super special 50th birthday with the help of so many of you: decorations from Erin Meyers and Sara Rainbolt, headbands from Sacha Brandes, videotaping thanks to Sandy Aley, towel favors from Lisa herself, set up and clean up by Karine Kashen, helium balloons from Hillary Marks, ice from Jill Martay, flashlight duty by Tanya Burdick, and SO many others I am missing that stepped in to make this event what it was.
We Stop Drop and Danced for one hour on a perfectly sunny day, we watched whales surface above the water in the distance, we mingled and ate a taco bar dinner, we watched the sunset at the same time the full moon was rising, we danced next to the ocean with three music stations on our silent disco headsets, and we ate some delicious carrot cake and chocolate cupcakes by our incredible baker, Leslie Dinham!
Finally, thank you to Karin Conn for sharing a thoughtful two-minute poem that she had written. Here's the ending, in characteristic Karin style:
"So to Lisa...
here's to 50 years
of laughter, love and wit.
You're beautiful,
inside and out.
Lisa Butcher, you're the SH*T!"
I hope you begin this new week by remembering to "Look Up" as you go through your normal day: when you drive down a familiar street, when you walk into the grocery store, when you eat at a local restaurant...
See something different.
See something beautiful.
See something... and smile.
Love,
Grace
