FRED ASTAIRE WISCONSIN: DANCING WELL AND DOING GOOD

By Linda Goethche, owner of Fred Astaire Dance Studio in Madison, WI

This past Saturday, October 4th, over 100 dancers from across the state gathered at the Fred Astaire Dance Studio of Madison to show off their skills, have fun, and help those in need at the semi-annual regional Team Match event. These dancers, all at the beginner level, came together to rumba, cha-cha, and polka and represent their studios at this holiday-themed event. Whichever studio had the most participation from their students would be declared the top studio, but that wasn’t the only award up for grabs.

In the run-up to Team Match, each studio challenged itself to see how much canned and boxed food they could raise to donate to Second Harvest Foodbank of Southern Wisconsin to help those who are going hungry this fall. With a regional goal of 1000 lbs, Fred Astaire Wisconsin set its goals high, aiming to be dancing stars and giving stars. Not only did we hit our goal, we almost doubled it by collecting 1884 lbs of food -- nearly a ton of canned and boxed goods to help the hungry in Madison.

The Menomonee Falls Dance Studio outside Milwaukee brought over 800 lbs and was declared Most Generous Studio. The Mequon and Madison Fred Astaire studios tied for the Top Studio award and were overjoyed at the honor. Thank you to our sponsors for supporting the Fred Astaire Dance Studio as we collected food for Second Harvest Foodbank of Southern Wisconsin!