Taylah Pomery, Naracoorte Community News

On Sunday 28th of November the Debbie Davis School of Dance hosted the Fight MND Dance-a-thon at the Naracoorte Town Hall. In total, the event has made approximately $7,900 to go to the Fight MND charity, inspired by beloved community figure Peter Grieve.

Donations came from dancers gaining dance-a-thon pledges, entries into the raffle, online and community members giving what they could at the door. The event entailed a large line of donated prizes for raffles and lucky squares, food and drink, a photobooth run by the Captured Images Naracoorte Photography Club and, of course, people of all ages dancing.

The afternoon ran with everyone participating in three rounds of non-stop dancing for 27 minutes each and watchers on were surprised by some choreographed line dances scattered throughout. One moment from the afternoon was when Peter entered the dance floor with his grandson on his wheelchair and all the dancers gathered around in a circle – lovely to see him “dance”.

The event highlighted the immense generosity of the Naracoorte and Bordertown community with over 80 local business donating prizes. Natalie Leipold-Brown and her daughter assisted by approaching businesses to get raffle donations and held stalls at both the Naracoorte and Bordertown show. Natalie says, “the fantastic generosity of the community had a huge impact on our fundraiser being a great success. People were so happy to donate, many spoke of close friends and family members affected by MND.”

Peter thanked everyone for being at the event, he said there was a great crowd and expressed how joyful it was to see all the young kids getting involved.

The magnitude of Mr Grieve’s impact on the dance school is prominent. Kristina Burt, 20, has been with the dance school for 11 years, shared a moment from this year’s concert – “When we went to give our thanks to Peter all of the dancers gave him a curtsy. With everything he is going through he MC’d this year’s concert with such grace and it was beautiful to see he still wanted to be there.  It was a really special moment to be involved in.”

Suzanna Buhtia, Rachael Shepherd and Freya Wirper, all fifteen years old, have been dancing with the Debbie Davis School of Dance since they were four, they said a highlight of the day was, “coming together with everyone and supporting the cause.”

This article appeared in Naracoorte Community News, 22 December 2021.