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[President's Corner]

WESTERN NEW YORK AREA FEDERATION OF SQUARE & ROUND DANCERS INC.

We currently have 16 clubs in the Federation: Batavia Silver Stars, Boo Bull Squares and Rounds, Cayuga Cut-Ups, Cloverleaf Squares, Copy Cats, Dalton Gang, Fun Bunch, Happy Squares, Pairs N Squares, Penn Yan Friendship Squares, Shirts N Skirts (Fulton), Shamrock Squares, Silver Squares, Southern Tier Wheelers, Village Squares and Waterwheel Squares. We hope you take the opportunity to dance with our member clubs this summer; there are many dancing opportunities.

We want to highlight some special dances coming up this summer:

Copy Cats Class Fund Raiser—All Singing Calls Dance with caller Ron Brown on Saturday, June 1st, 2–4 pm in Penfield.

Fulton Shirts N Skirts are sponsoring the Elaine Eno Memorial Dance on Saturday, June 8, from 1–8 pm in Fulton, NY. All proceeds will be donated to the ALS Association.

Federation’s Free Friday Night Dance—Friday, June 21, from 6:30–9:30 pm at Perinton Memorial VFW in Fairport.

The Cut-Ups 63rd Anniversary Steak Roast & Dance—Sunday, August 18, from 12 noon to 4 pm in Vince’s Park Pavilion in Seneca Falls. The Hip Boot Boys will be calling.

The Dalton Gang’s Second Annual CURE Dance for Childhood Cancer Awareness will be on Saturday, August 24 from 1–5pm in Bliss, NY. All proceeds go directly to CURE.

If you can’t attend the ALS or CURE Dance, please consider donating to them. Our callers and cuers are volunteering their time to these events. Please check the Promenader for more details on these dances.

The Federation’s 64th Dance-O-Rama (DOR) was held on Saturday, May 4, 2024, at the Perinton Rec Center. It was very successful, with 130 + in attendance. We all enjoyed dancing to callers Mike Callahan, Jonathon Weiner, and cuer Alice Bubel. We were happy to recognize 20 of our 2024 graduates who attended DOR. This year our clubs’ classes have added 26 new dancers to our dancing community. The Daphne -Norma Leadership Award, the highest honor awarded in our square dance community, was presented to Linda and Glynn English, long-time members of Cayuga Cut-Ups.

This year during the DOR 2024 program, the Federation recognized many of our “behind the scenes” volunteers. This includes work behind the scenes on the Promenader, the WNYF website, our insurance coverage, our contracts and the DOR committee. Each volunteer was given a “WNYF Thanks You” dangle. Again, we thank each of our volunteers, whether you have been volunteering for many years or this is your first year. Without the dedication and support of our volunteers, we would not have the wonderful dancing opportunities we enjoy in western New York. This year, the DOR basket raffle and 50/50 were very successful. We appreciate all the beautiful baskets the member clubs donated to DOR 2024. Special thank you to everyone who participated in DOR as volunteers, dancers, callers, cuers, etc. Without everyone’s efforts, DOR would not happen.

Upcoming Summer Demo—more details coming, please save the date:

Greece Historical Society—Annual Strawberry Festival Fund Raiser—more than 50 500 attendees each year

Monday, June 17, at 4–7 pm. Mike Callahan will be calling.

(Admission is free if you are dancing only. If you are planning to participate in the dessert tasting, you will need to pay admission.)

We will be sending out volunteer sign-up sheets and more information to the clubs.

We hope to see you on the dance floor this summer!

Debbie & Jeff Blood