fundraising Archives - Learn To Dance

Comic Relief Silent Social Friday 17th March

learndance — Sat, 28 Jan 2023 11:45:43 +0000

Come to Learn To Dance on Friday 17th March for our Comic Relief Silent Social. This will be a silent disco using headphones that can tune into three different channels. One channel will be playing Ballroom music, one Latin American, and a third channel with general ‘popular’ music.

For those who haven’t been to a silent disco before everyone wears a pair of headphones playing music that only you can hear. To the casual observer people are dancing around in silence (or maybe singing!). But to the dancer you are immersed in your own personal performance.

Each pair of headphones comes equipped with an LED light to indicate which channel you are listening to. We’d highly recommend, if dancing with a partner, that you both listen to the same channel!!!

This does mean that whilst one couple are dancing Waltz, another couple could be Jiving. In fact still more could be solo dancing to Abba or David Guetta. Spectators can even play guess the dance (especially if there appears to be some variations in interpretation).

Yes it’s going to be carnage, but that’s why we chose Red Nose Day from Comic Relief!

This promises to be a brand new experience from our regular monthly social dances. It may even be the first time this has ever been attempted for Ballroom & Latin.

We will be strictly limiting numbers for this event, and it is pre-booked only. However even if you can’t attend (or wish to contribute an additional donation), we have a JustGiving page set up.

Tickets for our Comic Relief Silent Social cost £20 per person. This does include the hire of all the equipment so all you need to do is turn up and dance.

To reserve a space for another person please visit the full booking system, or you can book for yourself using the option below:

The post Comic Relief Silent Social Friday 17th March appeared first on Learn To Dance.

NSPCC Surprise Ball fundraising total

learndance — Sat, 27 Mar 2021 10:11:29 +0000

Last year we were approached to help the NSPCC raise money for its Childline Service via a Charity Surprise Ball. The idea was to have a virtual event on YouTube, with advance ticket purchases providing access to the link.

Given that this was raising money for a children’s charity we felt one of Antony & Imogen’s lessons for kids would make the perfect addition.

The NSPCC looked through our catalog of videos and loved our Learn To Charleston – Kid’s Edition video. We also arranged for a local juvenile dance partnership to provide a dance demo too.

The NSPCC Surprise Ball

The Ball was compered by magician Michael King and also included an appearance from Childline founder Dame Esther Rantzen.

There were exclusive performances from Brit Award winner Beth Orton and Platinum selling artist Andrea Corr, plus an appearance from Childline Counsellor Suzie Daubeney.

Featuring a variety of magic tricks throughout, plus the dance demonstration and Charleston lesson, it’s an hour well spent if you’re looking for some entertainment.

You can catch up with the full Ball video below. Please consider donating to the NSPCC Surprise Ball by visiting their JustGiving page.

Childline Purpose and Total Raised

The NSPCC Surprise Ball was launched to directly raise funds towards Childline, after a significant increase in calls during the first lockdown.

Between 23 March and 10 May 2020, the NSPCC Childline Service delivered more than 30,000 counselling sessions that helped to deal with the top FIVE main concerns of young people:

Mental / emotional health
Suicidal thoughts and feelings
Family relationships
Self-harm
Sex / relationships / puberty

So far the NSPCC Surprise Ball video has raised £17,000 for Childline!

Below is a breakdown as how this money could be spent:

£16,000 will pay to recruit & train & support 10 New Childline Volunteers
£900 will pay for 5 days of helping children get back on track following abuse
£100 pays for a trained volunteer counsellor to answer 20+ calls

I’m sure you’ll agree that is a fantastic result and we’re so honoured to have been involved in such a worthwhile cause. We’d really love to help them break the £20,000 barrier so please help us by donating today.

About Learn To Dance

Learn To Dance is a Ballroom and Latin American Dance School based in Burnham, Buckinghamshire.

Offering regular live-stream classes, as well as useful dance uploads, subcribe on YouTube to be kept informed when new videos are going live. Send us your suggestions of what you’d like to see us release and we’ll do our best!

Looking for more personal tuition? We provide both in-person and streamed lessons and classes. Check out learndance.co.uk/online for more information.

You can check out our website, or follow us online, at:

Website: learndance.co.uk
Youtube: youtube.com/learndance
Facebook: facebook.com/learndance
Instagram: instagram.com/learndance
Twitter: twitter.com/learndance

The post NSPCC Surprise Ball fundraising total appeared first on Learn To Dance.

Defibrillator Fundraising Success!

learndance — Sat, 08 Sep 2018 13:45:04 +0000

After a particularly energetic Jive & Quickstep class, with our over 50’s group on a Tuesday afternoon, we were asked [in jest] where the nearest defibrillator was. Whilst asked jokingly this did however get us thinking…

Enquiries with Burnham Parish Council revealed that the nearest AED (Automated External Defibrillator) would be at Burnham Park Hall, around a 5 minute drive from the studio. Whilst AEDs have been shown to double the survival rate of someone suffering a sudden cardiac arrest, their effectiveness reduces by around 10% for every minute delay in their usage.

Given that our studio is based within football playing fields and is a hotspot for dog walkers and joggers, we felt the benefit of having an AED outside the studio could not be overlooked if it meant the difference between life or death for someone.

Burnham Parish Council offered to pay for the installation and hosting of the external cabinet if we were able to raise enough to cover the net cost of the equipment and cabinet of £1,366.25.

We looked at a variety of options for how we might raise the funds required, and eventually decided on a fun day of dance sessions on Monday 28th May.

Any excess funds raised would then be donated to the Check Heart Appeal, a fundraising page set up to raise money for C-R-Y (Cardiac Risk in the Young), a charity close to Antony & Emma’s heart.

In the morning we had an American Smooth workshop, a FitSteps taster and a lunchtime Tea Dance; whilst the afternoon saw ‘Singin’ in the Rain’, Bollywood and Charleston inspired workshops.

All of that did mean that Antony had to have at least 5 costume changes!

We received a number of donations, both before and after the day, from those that were unable to attend and we also held a raffle with a variety of prizes including a LearnToDance gift voucher and the top prize of a family photoshoot with Emma-Louise Walton Photography.

The raffle was closed and drawn a week later live on our Facebook Page, although we started to panic when a number of duplicate winners started being drawn (regardless of how much Antony shook and mixed up the tickets) but it evened out in the end!

https://www.facebook.com/learndance/videos/10160843462305221/

Between the fundraising day, raffle and donations LearnToDance raised a total of £1,855.63!

We instructed Burnham Parish Council to order the defibrillator and are pleased to announce that this has now been installed!

We would like to say a massive thank you to everyone involved in the running/administration of the event, everyone that donated or attended the day, and Burnham Parish Council for their support.

Much appreciated,

Antony, Emma and the LearnToDance team

About LearnToDance

LearnToDance is a Ballroom and Latin American Dance School run by husband and wife team Antony & Emma-Louise Holeksa and has been running since 2006. Classes for all levels and ages, and personal tuition, take place throughout the week, as well as dance breaks and private events.

In 2016 we moved into our own dedicated studio at the Cherry Orchard in Burnham and now offer sessions most days of the week.

About Check Heart Appeal

This has been set up to honour the memory of Ben Birch who died on the 22nd May 2013 of Sudden Adult Death Syndrome (S.A.D.S).

Undiagnosed heart conditions claim at least 12 young people every week in the UK and our chosen charity, Cardiac Risk in the Young, (CRY) fights to raise awareness, support bereaved families and promote heart screening, ECG testing programmes and medical research into S.A.D.S.

Ben was 29 years old and was taken from us suddenly. There were no warning signs and we hope that raising any amount of money to help prevent other familes from suffering the loss we have suffered will be a great way to remember him.

About C-R-Y

Every week in the UK at least 12 young people die of undiagnosed heart conditions. Since its formation in 1995, Cardiac Risk in the Young (CRY) has been working to reduce the frequency of young sudden cardiac death (YSCD). CRY supports young people diagnosed with potentially life-threatening cardiac conditions and offers bereavement support to families affected by YSCD. CRY promotes and develops heart screening programmes and funds medical research. CRY publishes and distributes medical information written by leading cardiologists for the general public. CRY funds specialist referral, screening and cardiac pathology services at leading UK hospitals.

About Defibrillators

An automated external defibrillator (AED) is a portable electronic device that automatically diagnoses the life-threatening cardiac arrhythmias of ventricular fibrillation and pulseless ventricular tachycardia, and is able to treat them through defibrillation, the application of electricity which stops the arrhythmia, allowing the heart to reestablish an effective rhythm.

With simple audio and visual commands, AEDs are designed to be simple to use for the layperson, and the use of AEDs is taught in many first aid, certified first responder, and basic life support (BLS) level cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) classes.

Uncorrected, these cardiac conditions (ventricular tachycardia, ventricular fibrillation, asystole) rapidly lead to irreversible brain damage and death, once cardiac arrest takes place. After approximately three to five minutes in cardiac arrest, irreversible brain/tissue damage may begin to occur. For every minute that a person in cardiac arrest goes without being successfully treated (by defibrillation), the chance of survival decreases by 7 percent per minute in the first 3 minutes, and decreases by 10 percent per minute as time advances beyond ~3 minutes.

Observational studies have shown that in out of hospital cardiac arrest, public access defibrillators when used were associated with 40% median survival. When operated by non-dispatched lay first responders they have the highest likelihood of leading to survival.

The post Defibrillator Fundraising Success! appeared first on Learn To Dance.