Dear Friends,
Thank you for raising $3210 for Ruby's Rainbow!
Last Saturday we had our 4th annual Stop Drop and Dance fundraiser for Ruby's Rainbow and their 3/21 Pledge Fundraiser to provide college scholarships for students with Down Syndrome!
Our first fundraiser was on 3/21/20, only a few days after the official pandemic shutdown happened...
We had stopped all in-person contact and tried to switch our classes virtually onto zoom (with terrible audio and unsynced music!!!). Thank you to Stephanie Byers and her son, Toshi, for introducing Ruby’s Rainbow to our community that first year! We raised $160 dancing on Zoom together!
For our second fundraiser in 2021, we kept our zoom classes and started dancing together in-person...
This time local Marin host Jessica Kissane joined us with her daughter Cassidy! We were still social distancing so we found a parking garage that could be considered outdoors, and gathered together to raise $1417!
For our third fundraiser in 2022, we started dressing up in rainbow-themed clothing...
Jessica's whole family participated in dancing this year, and she stepped up her hosting by adding gifts for attendees. Jessica bought matching rainbow headbands and wrist bands for everyone! We raised $2158 that third year dancing in the garage and on Zoom!
For our fourth fundraiser this year in 2023, we raised enough money for a scholarship to be given in honor of Cassidy's name!
Not only are we still dancing in a garage, but also Jessica continues to generously provide goodies for attendees by buying pink "Be Kind" hats and rainbow bracelets for everyone! What made it even more special was that Cassidy was super brave and chose to speak in the beginning of class to everyone and introduce Ruby Rainbow's mission!
In addition, this year because we raised over $3000, we found out that we get to have a college scholarship awarded to a student in Cassidy's name! What an honor!
Thank you to everyone who has contributed to our total of $6776 over the past 4 years for Ruby's Rainbow!
When I'm 64!
Last week we celebrated Andrea Spencer's 64th birthday with a sunflower and sunshine theme wearing our Gold “Shine Your Light” tanks! Andrea was so sweet to bring sunflowers for everyone to clip onto our tanks, and at the end she also treated everyone to yummy donuts!
Andrea chose a super high cardio 75 minute playlist and outdanced us all, literally jumping higher and bigger than everyone! Just goes to show, age is nothing but a number! Of course we finished class singing with the Beatles:
"Will you still need me,
Will you still feed me,
When I'm 64!"
How We Chose Our Logo
Back when we started Stop Drop And Dance around 2014, Nike used the song, “Da Da Ding” by Gener8ion, in one of their ads. It became our signature birthday song where the person of honor got to be surrounded in the “mush pot” with everyone jumping around them. We brought that song back last Thursday for our birthday celebration for Andrea Spencer!
That jump became the silhouette logo for this "Power With Grace" small business and you can see the shape so perfectly done by 64 year old birthday dancer Andrea! Look at her FLY!!!
The POWER is represented in the jump of the logo:
how high we soar,
how hard we dance,
how much we sweat…
And the GRACE is expressed in the backbend of the logo:
how we open our hearts,
how we shine our inner light,
and how we try to make an impact in each others’ lives and our community with kindness and love.
Thank you for supporting this Power With Grace community!
How Does A Real Community Form?
What has been beautiful to witness in our community is how showing up to class is not just about getting a workout in. It's not about slipping in and out, being invisible, or just trying to get more fit.
It MAY start that way, but our community has organically made it SO much more than that.
My hope is that you know someone else's name.
My hope is that you feel seen and loved.
My hope is that you start to share your stories and go beyond the surface.
When we are open and brave to be real and authentic, we inspire one another, we encourage one another, and we are stronger because of one another.
We Stand By You
On Tuesday, we finished class by celebrating Ashley Walter's 40th birthday, and inviting Susannah Wallenstrom up too since she was unintentionally matching our outfits =)
In addition, we invited Amy Poirier up for the first time, who has been a relatively new member for the past few months and even joined our Dance-a-thon this year! Her friend, Hillary Barber, also came up for the first time to support Amy!
Amy was incredibly courageous.
Not only did she accept the invitation to dance up front for the first time ever, but more importantly, she was brave to share her journey with our community: that this was her last class for a few weeks because she is having her second round of breast cancer surgery.
We danced our last song of class to "Stand By You," by Rachel Platten, for Amy (who appropriately wore her hot pink tank for breast cancer), and then she was showered with hugs, words of encouragement, and love from the dancers who were there.
Please join me in sending all your love, prayers, and positive energy to Amy!!!
NO CLASSES NEXT WEEK for Spring Break!
My family is heading to Costa Rica for the first time this Saturday and we will be gone until the following weekend. We are excited to travel to warm weather and explore all the adventures Costa Rica has to offer!
All live classes from this previous week, including last Saturday's Ruby Rainbow fundraiser, are recorded and available on-demand all week long! You can purchase classes a-la-carte or members have free access to all online content!
Classes will resume on Tuesday, April 18th!
More Than Exercise
Over the weekend I had a wonderful belated birthday get together with my dear friends, Seran Kim and Carolina Boersma. Among their gifts was this pillow that you can see is aligned with the purpose and mission of "The Power With Grace."
Isn't it perfect that the word, "exercise" is used in this definition?
In truth, our classes ARE based on the physical act of exercising. But I hope that you have discovered, or will discover, that through our classes, through these newsletters, through our fundraisers, and through our relationships, we as a community are challenged to
exercise so much more.
May all of us give gratitude and appreciation for the grace that is given to us, and may we remember to give unlimited grace to ourselves and all those around us.
Have a wonderful Easter weekend and spring break, friends!
Love,
Grace
