| 13 May 2008, at 2.04 pm | Sign In or become a Member to use the Guestbook, Results Exchange or Chatroom |
The Friends of McGahan Lees Irish Dance Academy
[Details of next meeting here.]
Started in 1999, 'The Friends' is simply a group of parents whose children dance with the McGahan Lees Irish Dance Academy. Its sole reason for existence is to support the Academy's dancers in whatever way possible -- either directly or by support of the Academy itself.
Meetings are held every month or so, and anybody whose child dances with the Academy is invited to attend. Our meetings are informal and friendly -- the only qualification is that you are prepared to invest a little time and effort in helping all of the dancers in the Academy.
The main practical function of the Friends is to organise and carry out fundraising activities. It would be easy to spend the funds raised paying for travel and accommodation for championship dancers, (we don't -- they do most of their own fundraising), but it's surprising how difficult it can be to find good ways to help those who are still on their way up the ladder. We seem to spend half of each Friends meeting trying to come up with new ideas.
The Friends currently support the purchase of class costumes for hire to less experienced dancers. We also subsidise good quality McGL clothing (track suits, tee-shirts, etc), and pay for this website. Unfortunately, it is not that easy to help beginners and primary dancers with what you would think are obvious costs, such as travel and accommodation, because they do not normally compete out of the local area.
So how to pass some benefit to our competing dancers, no matter what grade?
One way is to run frequent class feises, including a Class Feis in the spring of each year, and a very special Beginners' Class Feis in the run-up to Christmas. This is a great opportunity for young and/or inexperienced dancers (and their families) to find out what a feis is like. A lot of hard work goes into these events -- both in advance and on the day -- but it's worth it to see yet another crop of 'first timers' with 'the sparkle' in their eyes !!
Join us
If you have a son or daughter who dances with the Academy, minutes of meetings are available on request. If you belong to the Academy and have something you want to ask or say, contact a committee member or, better still, come along to our next meeting.
