Imagine that when you said goodbye to your spouse this morning, it would be 12 months before you would see him/her again.
Imagine that during that period, you could not simply pick-up the phone and call him/her; in fact, you are not even sure where he/she is at.
Imagine the look on your child’s face as each holiday, birthday, dance recital and baseball game ticks by without dad or mom and wonder what is going through their mind.
Imagine him/her finally coming home without an arm or leg or otherwise severally injured for life.
Imagine him/her never coming home again.
You just briefly imagined a year in the life of a spouse with a deployed military service man or woman. It took you a minute or two, but it is on their mind virtually every minute of every day and it is real!
We are Let’s Have a Dance Party USA, a non-profit, 501 (c) 3 charitable organization, that serves the families of deployed military service men and women. Our mission is to create an interactive, theme based event that incorporates age appropriate dance and movement that’s silly, fun and entertaining and create an environment where the children and the spouse of a deployed military service man or women can connect, laugh and forget for an afternoon. Our primary mission is to put a smile on the face of each child and parent.
Every Let’s Have a Dance Party USA event is professionally planned, produced, staged, choreographed and performed. It is a true community-wide event that involves local military support staff both here and abroad, as well as youth services and parental volunteers. Each child receives a colorful Let’s Have a Dance Party USA tee shirt and a special gift from one of our corporate sponsors. At the conclusion of the event, both the children and parents are invited to a cookout, pizza or ice cream party where they can simply mingle, meet the performers or have a picture taken with one or all of our special costumed characters.
Our inaugural Let’s Have a Dance Party USA event, entitled Monster Dance Party, was held at McGuire AFB, the home of the 305th Air Mobility Wing, on April 28, 2007 and, by all accounts, it was judged to be a smashing success. It was attended by 225 children and 175 parents, including 5 special active duty parents who performed their own version of the Monster Dance Party dance for the McGuire attendees from their base in Iraq. Our second Let’s Have A Dance Party USA event was held at Fort Campbell, the home of the 101st Airborne “Screaming Eagles” on April 26, 2008 and, judging from the faces of the 1,300 children and 600 parents who attended, it too was a smashing success (Click here to read what our clients had to say). Our next stop will be at a joint Navy/Marine command, hopefully in 2008.
Each Let’s Have a Dance Party USA event cost approximately $25,000 - $30,000 to produce. Our plan is to conduct two events per year at military bases inside and out of the United States that are currently scheduled to be deployed in Iraq or Afghanistan. Our program is strongly supported at the highest levels of the Pentagon.
How much is a smile worth? When it appears on the faces of the children and parents who put themselves in harms way for our benefit and dutifully serve to protect our way of life, we believe the answer is obvious; priceless. We hope that you share our passion and enthusiasm for this worthwhile effort and will give generously so that we can continue serving the families of the men and women who so selflessly serve us every day. |
