Flock Together for Thanksgiving!

by on Nov 16 '16

Thanksgiving is that time of year when we come together as friends, families and communities to reflect on and count our blessings. We count you among our blessings, and we are so thankful for the positive community surrounding the dance world and the happy dancers at our studio!

We also recognize that there is so much strife in this world, and many communities are less fortunate than our own. That’s why, this Thanksgiving, we wanted to take our thankfulness a step further and give back to a community in need. We know there are so many worthy causes in our local area, state and country, but in the wake of the recent devastation Hurricane Matthew left in an already struggling Haiti, we chose the people of Haiti as the focus of our fundraising efforts.

First, we selected a local 501(c)3 organization 410 Bridge as the recipient of the funds we raise. They have boots on the ground helping to rebuild and support communities in Haiti, and we truly believe in their mission. We know that every penny we raise for them will positively impact the people who need it most.

Next, since we are all about making dance fun, we wanted to also make the fundraiser fun! So, we created a fun theme: Flock Together to Help Haiti! Our goal is for every dancer at our studio to donate a minimum of $1 so that we can give the people of Haiti more than $1,000.

What better way to promote the fundraiser and show the progress than a visual display?! We created a Flock Together bulletin board and placed it in a high traffic area in our studio. It’s Thanksgiving, so naturally, our bird of choice was the turkey! After crafting the body of the turkey from construction paper, pom poms and other crafting supplies we already had on hand, we purchased plenty of 8-inch die-cut feathers online in a variety of fun, fall colors. We also purchased a few gold, glittery ones for added fun + sparkle! Each time a dancer donates a minimum of $1 to the fundraiser, we give them a feather to write their name.

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To give the turkey a few feathers at the onset, we asked our faculty to be the first to donate and pin their feather. But our dancers are loving being able to write their names and watching us pin their feather on the turkey. We simply created a box at the front desk with the feathers, multiple sharpies and push pins, and made sure all our front desk staff knew all the details.

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In addition to emailing all our families about this fundraiser, we also created a flyer that we framed at the front desk to provide specific details and serve as a reminder. Since we already have a hashtag we use anytime we do fundraising or community service related events (#sharerhythmlove), we did not create a special hashtag for this event, but we have been promoting it on our social media using our hashtag.

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So far, the fundraiser is going great, and our dancers love to participate and see their name on the Flock Together bulletin board. We are continuing the fundraiser through Thanksgiving to raise as much money as possible.

The “flock together” theme is an idea you can use any time of the year with various types of birds…a dove or swan during the winter holidays, a blue bird or baby chick in the spring, a flamingo in the summer. You can truly help a great cause (any cause close to your home and/or heart) while also boosting morale throughout your studio and “flocking together” to continue to foster the positive community spirit that embodies our dance world. Don’t forget to create your own hashtag to help promote it on social media!

Wishing you and your loved ones many blessings this Thanksgiving season and always!


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