Sponsorship Opportunities…

My "handler" — my husband and business partner, Dennis — asked me to tell you about some unique sponsorship opportunities currently available. As a participant, we're "strongly encouraged" to make a commitment at the $5,000 sponsorship level. We've developed two levels of sponsorships in order to help fund this commitment and raise additional money for the charity. We want to make this a win-win for everyone willing to join in and participate. As a "Dancing Donna" sponsor you will receive viral marketing for your business or organization, have fun at the event and pre-event party, and best of all be helping to support Carriage House. All sponsorship money goes directly to Carriage House (make sure your check is made payable to Carriage House, but mail to Dennis in care of Emley Design Group so we're sure it gets applied to "Dancing Donna").

Sponsors may be companies, organizations, or individuals. Call or email Dennis at 260-436-9039 or dennis@edg-dmc.com for more info. Here are the details:

FOX TROT Sponsorship Level - $1,000
• 2 tickets to the event, including two seats at priority table
• Invitation to special “Encore Party ” after the official event (date TBD)
• Your ad, logo and link to your web site on DancingDonna.com, DancingDonnaBlog.Blogspot.com, and CreativeFortWayne.com
• Your ad, logo and link to your web site in each issue of the DancingDonna e-newsletter (multiple issues) and your company/organization/personal profile in one issue of the newsletter
• Your logo and link to your web site in press release in "Of Interest" news area on the EmleyDesignGroup.com web site
• Logo on official "DancingDonna" t-shirt
• Two "DancingDonna" t-shirts
• Logo on recognition table tent on table at event
• Photo with Donna and dance partner the evening of event

WALTZ Sponsorship Level - $250
• Invitation to special “Encore Party ” after the official event (date TBD)
• Your ad, logo and link to your web site on DancingDonna.com, DancingDonnaBlog.Blogspot.com, and CreativeFortWayne.com
• Your logo and link to your web site in each issue of the DancingDonna e-newsletter (multiple issues)
• Your name acknowledged in press release in "Of Interest" news area on the EmleyDesignGroup.com web site
• Name on recognition table tent on table at event
• Photo with Donna and dance partner the evening of event
• Note - does not include tickets to the Carriage House's Dancing With The Stars event

"Everybody Dance Now!" Sponsorship Level - any donation amount
• Your name listed as "Dancing Donna" supporter and e-subscription to DancingDonna e-newsletter (multiple issues)
• Note - does not include tickets to the Carriage House's Dancing With The Stars event

Marion, Ohio 1966 - 5 years old

Here I am in front of our house in one of my dancing outfits. It was made by the same company who made the dancing costumes for the June Taylor Dancers (remember them on the Jackie Gleason show?). This costume had gold sequins and feathers on the body suit and matching arm "mitts." This outfit was for a tap class - and I thought I was truly a "Fancy Nancy" in my sequined suit, tall head dress, tap shoes, and fish net stockings...

The other photo is of me on stage in Columbus, Ohio performing in "Tales of the Vienna Woods." This is cropped from part of our recital photo — notice I'm almost hitting the other little girl dancer in the head as I "strike MY pose" in position and look directly into the camera. What a ham!

Lots of fun and wonderful memories looking back at some of these old pictures...will have to share a few more after I dig through the countless albums and boxes...and also tell you about my wonderful dancing instructor, Martha Douce.

Modern Day Musings.......

I'm very honored to have been asked to participate in this year's "Dancing with the Ft. Wayne Stars" but being able to actually DO so, and do it well will be another story. While I did dance in grade school, middle school and high school, that was a long time ago (30 years to be exact — my high school reunion is this July). My tap shoes wouldn't fit anyone over the age of six; my tutus are all TOO, TOO small; and I haven't been able to lift my leg past my hip since an aerobics class in the '80s.

Today is the day of reckoning — it's summer, the weather is nice, and I need to start conditioning and training — if not with dance classes yet (we'll schedule those later when we're assigned our professional dance partner) then at least something to get this old body moving in directions it hasn't been moving in for awhile. I walk now, but maybe adding a pilates class or zumba class too is in order? And maybe just one less glass of wine a week..........

An Early Memory......

My mom liked to listen to the stereo during the day and dance around the room holding me (no, not ALL day long — she would sometimes cook, clean and take care of the animals too!). When I was old enough to start trying to walk, she would prop me up by the sofa in our living room and then move a foot away and encourage me to come to her. If the stereo was on, I would laugh and bounce up and down to the music instead of trying to walk.
I eventually did learn how to walk, but apparently still liked bouncing to the music. One day she came in the room and found I had crawled up on TOP of the hard-top record player that was on the floor with the lid shut, and was doing my version of dancing on top.

First, some background...

I was adopted when I was three days old. My parents were about to turn 40, and had been married for 12 years, so they had waited a long time to finally have a child to call their own. We lived in Indianapolis at the time, and my mother, a full time wife and homemaker, couldn't wait to send my father off to his job as grain buyer for Central Soya each day so she could stay home and "play" with me.
My mother and father enjoyed going out dancing on Saturday nights and actually first met at a dance after World War II. They met in Middlebury, and one of the local bands that played there would play the song "Candy" when my mother walked in wearing a particular red and white striped dress. My dad and a buddy came one night, and the buddy liked my mom, so my dad decided to try to "steal" his buddy's new girlfriend. He got up enough nerve to ask her to dance, sang "It Had To Be You" into her ear, and the rest — as they say — is history.
So dancing and music was something my mother and father enjoyed very much and exposed me to at a very early age. (Don't you love the seams in her hose — and how skinny his tie is?)