By all accounts, the 2012 Dancers Reaching Out event was a tremendous success. Each and every performer really seemed to dig deep and do their very best dancing (and singing!) for the audience and for Lacey. But what more can we do?
Our 2012 Dancers Reaching Out event has come and gone.
This year's show was notable for several reasons, the greatest of which is that the beneficiary was (and still is!!!) the Lacey Horwitch RTH Research Fund. Lacey is a 3rd grade dancer at DancEd who resides in Northbrook and has been stricken with two very rare conditions. Her doctors say that she may be the only person on the planet who is known to have these two diseases. Fortunately for Lacey and her wonderful family, the greatest and most renown doctors in the world for at least one of her conditions (RTH) do their work out of the University of Chicago. Lacey is in the very best hands possible.
Because of the incredibly personal nature of this D.R.O. fundraiser event, it was also memorable because of the outpouring of support for the cause and for the performance itself. From the bone marrow drives to the ebay auctions to the show itself and everything in-between, people really wanted to get involved to show their support. The event truly took on a life of it's own, and that was awesome to see.
In addition, this weekend was also noteworthy because of the weather. The huge storm that hit the area on Friday caused us to have to cancel the dress rehearsal that we had planned for Friday evening! That was a first. Of course, because the DancEd dancers are so awesome it didn't matter a bit. We were a little concerned going into the Sunday performance because we knew that there would be people in the audience who had never seen a DancEd show before and we obviously wanted the show to go well, but any concern that we may have had was just time wasted (as it nearly always is!!!) because the kids totally rose to the occasion. Our dancers nailed it, both young and old. You'd have thought that Sunday was the closing night of a show that had been running for months. We were all very proud!!!
And through it all, Lacey's presence was heavy in the auditorium - but Lacey was not there. Her entire extended family seemed to be there (including a Great-grandmother!), but Lacey was 25 miles away in her hospital room. Her family was a sea of smiles as they watched Lacey's big sister Maya and her little sister Jenna dance and sing their hearts out, but when the final curtain came down and the last of 225 or so hugs from moms, dads, & relatives had been squeezed into their dancer for a job well done, Lacey's mom made the drive straight to Lacey's hospital room - just like she has done every day for the past 5 months.
Knowing that just made the whole thing seem like it is not enough. At DancEd we see the smiles on the faces of the dancers each and every day, but God forgive us if we ever lose sight of the fact that some kids in our circle of influence do not have nearly as much to smile about.
