BLAINE, Minn. – (Sept. 7, 2017) – With the recent devastation of hurricane Harvey, many are looking to help out in any way they can. Arabesque Dance studio in Blaine, is joining efforts with an organization in Houston to make sure kids have what they need to continue to dance.
“You know, I thought about, what would happen if it was us?” Shelly Walberg said.
It’s the question we often ask when tragedy hits. Walberg, the owner of Arabesque school of dance is doing for other what she hopes would be done for them.
“Our staff was talking, what could we do to have an affect, there’s so much going on throughout the United States and being a small studio, we thought, let’s do a fundraiser, let’s do a clothing drive.”
Walberg reached out to an organization in Houston to find out exactly what the dance community down there needs.
“We got in contact with an organization in Texas and it’s called Help Texas’ Dance Communities, and what we are doing is we’re looking for clothing, shoes, hair accessories, anything that you can use for dance as well as Target gift cards, Wal-Mart gift cards and we’ll send it to them,” Walberg said
Because the needs are vast, efforts are growing with other dance studios in the Twin Cities reaching out.
“You know it started off being small, maybe just a few boxes to send but since we sent out a press release, we’ve heard from three other dance studios and they are joining in the efforts with us,” Walberg said.
Of course, the dancers themselves are highly involved.
“They’re cleaning out their closets, taking the stuff that’s too small, bringing it in to us, I’ve heard from grandparents saying, ‘what can we do to help? We don’t have any dance apparel, we don’t have any dance shoes,’ and I said get Target gift cards, get Wal-Mart gift cards, send them to us, bring them to us and I’m sure they’ll be very happy to receive them as well,” Walberg said.
When tragedy strikes, necessities become priorities and dreams are often differed. Walberg hopes this can provide those dancers with the necessities they need to continue their dreams.
“The last thing that you want is for a parent to say, ‘I’m sorry you can’t dance because I don’t have shoes, I don’t have clothing for you, you know we have necessities we have to take care of,’ and this is one way we can make it easier for the parents to say, ‘I don’t want my daughter or my son to give up dancing'”
Arabesque dance studio will need volunteers 10-11:30 a.m., Saturday, Sept.9 for sorting and packing donations.
