Dear Friends,
The Christmas House is OPEN!
Happy November everyone! We are excited to announce that we have officially picked the date for our 3rd annual Power With Grace Holiday Party:
Wednesday, November 18th from 5:45pm-8:00pm
A huge thank you goes out to our generous host, and one of our dancers, Barb Untermann, whose family owns the West End Nursery in San Rafael located at 1938 5th Avenue. Barb spends MONTHS transforming the nursery into "The Christmas House" every holiday season, and it officially opened to the public yesterday, on November 1st! Please visit with your families to see their incredible collection of uniquely themed ornaments and support their family business!
In addition to Barb, thank you to Erin Meyers and Eliza Desch for hosting this event for the 3rd year in a row. We also have a special performance this year by our very own Magic Marsha, aka "The Queen of Hearts," and her assistant, "The Jack of Diamonds!"
Please note that our holiday party is designed to be an intentional time for our community to connect. Therefore, we ask that you try your best to attend for the whole time.
The tentative itinerary will be:
5:45-6:00pm Arrive with your finger-food potluck item
6:00pm-6:15pm Eat, drink, and mingle
6:15-6:45pm Magic Marsha performance
6:45pm-7:15pm Ornament shopping (and more eating!)
7:15pm-7:45pm Small group breakout sharing
7:45pm-8:00pm Check-out
The theme this year will be "QUEENS of Hearts" to match with our magic show, so please wear something red and comfortable, since we will be sitting on the staircase for the magic show, and on the floor for sharing time. You are welcome to bring your own portable beach chair or stadium seats if needed.
Please RSVP by November 13th and sign up to bring something to share!
Happy 60th Birthday Bonnie Kirkpatrick!
Thank you so much for supporting Bonnie’s 60th birthday fundraiser last week by dancing and raising almost $3000 for Bridge the Gap - a non-profit organization that aims to provide comprehensive educational, social, and emotional resources to underserved students in Marin County. An extra special thank you goes out to Bonnie's husband, Lee, and about ten of Bonnie's close friends, who came in-person or on Zoom to Stop Drop and Dance!
We all showed up wearing different school or college apparel as the outfit theme, and Erin Meyers brought in the perfect college pennants for decoration! Bonnie chose our 75 minute playlist and danced up front the whole time! She also shared a few words about Bridge the Gap, as well as their Executive Director, Lisa Raffel!
Happiest 60th Bonnie! We adore you and your infectious positive energy! Keep shining your light and making a huge difference in the world!
Calling All The Monsters!
How fun that we got to celebrate Halloween Day on Saturday morning at our Stop Drop and Dance class!
In addition to a few of our regular songs, we added in Halloween favorites like the "Monster Mash," "Heads Will Roll," and "Thriller!" We finished class individually strutting down the runway showcasing each of our silly Halloween costumes!
At night, our family chose to watch the Golden State Valkyries WIN THE WNBA CHAMPIONSHIP before going out to trick-or-treat. I am so grateful my girls got to watch HER-story being made in the Bay Area!
Happy Halloween!
What I Vote For
Thank you to Jen Gonzalez and Tanya Burdick for sharing their Dancers in the Wild encounter in their neighborhood on Halloween!
As election day approaches this week, Halloween reminds me what I vote for:
Whatever makes people as generous as they are during Halloween, opening up their homes and sharing free candy out of spirit and love.
Whatever makes a community safe and welcoming so that we can walk down the street confidently being ourselves.
Whatever sparks friendly conversations and genuine curiosity about others and their differences.
The fact that Halloween exists in our world year after year as a tradition of generosity, expression, and curiosity, gives me hope that we have so much potential to be better, kinder, and more loving people!
Love,
Grace
