After a successful, sold out run of Lilith, the Lady’s Leg Dancers are wrapping things up with the distribution of their community donations and starting to plan next year’s event.
This year Lilith took place over three nights from March 1 to 3 at Centre 64. The show, as always, featured an all women cast, all women audience, and all women volunteers.
Emily Gilmar of the Lady’s Leg Dancers group says that they wanted to honour the tradition that the Steppin’ Out Dancers created in the community 18 years ago, celebrating women with a women’s only night out. This was the Lady’s Leg Dancers’ third year hosting the event.
Not only did the show sell out, but they hosted a small market featuring local female artisans, and raised a total of $8,730 which they have donated back into the community.
“This is the most money we have ever raised with this event,” explained Gilmar, who says the funds will be going towards their annual scholarship, a free community swim at the Kimberley Aquatic Centre, the Helping Hands Food Bank, and the Seniors Helping Seniors group.
“We will be continuing with our annual scholarship of $1,500 for the third year in a row,” Gilmar said. “The scholarship was something our group wanted to create to live out the vision of Lilith and our dance group, which is to empower a inspire women to take chances and put themselves out there. We thought a great way to do this would be to set up an annual scholarship for a young woman in our community who is pursuing post secondary education. It will be awarded at Selkirk’s graduation ceremony later this year.”
The ladies will also be providing a free family swim at the Kimberley Aquatic Centre, which will take place on May 30.
“This is a great way we can give back to the community and is something everyone can enjoy,” said Gilmar.
$4,900 of the funds also went towards the Kimberley Helping Hands Food Bank.
“We admire how this organization helps members of our community and hope that this donation can help to provide them with more support for local families in need,” Gilmar explained. “We appreciate and value their work in the community and know the food bank is always striving to do more. We hope to be able to help them achieve their goals and provide support to countless families, men, women, and children in our amazing town.
“We also collected donations of feminine hygiene products at the door each night and received a full car load of donations that we dropped off following the event.”
The remainder of the proceeds, $2,000, will go to the Seniors Helping Seniors group.
“We wanted to give back to the older generation of Kimberley,” Gilmar said. “We’ll be providing $2,000 to the Seniors Helping Seniors group, an organization that supports independent seniors and enables them to participate in various activities including swimming, walking, getting out to doctor appointments, grocery shopping, and visits; with the main goal of encouraging socialization and keeping their minds active.”
Gilmar says they are thrilled with the success of the event and will soon be starting to plan for Lilith 2019. If you wish to get involved by sponsoring the event, volunteering, performing or being a part of the artisan market, contact ladyslegdancers@gmail.com.
The Lady’s Leg Dancers are made up of Kylee Ablett, Lauren Rokosh, Emily Gilmar, Corissa Pasiechnyk, Kelsey Fabro, Jill Schacher, Elli Bamsey, Hayley Simkins, Alex Ablett, Kylie Newton, Tessa Rokosh, Megan Strachan-Garrels, Danielle Roe and Taylor White.
The cast list for this year’s event included the Lady’s Leg Dancers, Sjaane Beattie & Alisa Sansregret, Brenna Heer, Steppin’ Out Dancers, Janis Caldwell, Kara Brissette, Zoe Ferguson, Carly Dow, Shannon Grey Duncan, and Cedar Creek.
The Lady’s Leg Dancers would like to thank the sponsors of this year’s event: Paper & Cup, Creekside Physiotherapy, Kootenay Life Cycle, Columbia Basin Trust, Overtime Beer Works, Western Financial Group, Meadowsweet Wellness, Wine Works, Zen Mountain Float and Wellness, Ki-Flo, Sunlife Financial (Rachel Langlois), Save on Foods, Fruition Wellness, and Centex/Stoke Juice Bar.
“We would also like to extend a huge thank you to all of the volunteers that pulled the show together.” said Gilmar. “It’s an event that would not be possible with out their support and involvement. Also special thanks to our two photographers for capturing photos of the event: Photos by Frida & Jenny Graburn.”
