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| Wild West at Ladies Night Out |
Legend has it that Beto Perez walked into his aerobics class one day and discovered (gasp!) that he forgot his music! So he grabbed some salsa and merengue tapes from his car and improvised the first ever dance fitness party (later named ZUMBA)!
Call it fate, call it magic - but since that day, the party he started has taken on a life of its own. You can now find Zumba classes at over 200,000 locations and in 180 countries!
If you know me personally, you know that I love a party - especially a party with a THEME (costumes are an added bonus)! Those 200,00 locations mentioned above have a theme (one of my favorites)... #zumbalove. Caring instructors, passionate students, and a whole lot of people wanting to make the world a better place. I wonder if Beto ever imagined the infinite number of lives he would affect with the creation of Zumba. The ripple stemming from that fateful class is mind-blowing.
This weekend I was lucky enough to be a part of three different parties for three very worthy causes (and lucky for me, they all had some awesome themes of their own)! Here's a recap:
Ladies Night Out:
For the 6th year in a row, Northern Dauphin County Human Services welcomed hundreds of women to Ladies Night Out. This year's theme? Wild West! The event was free and featured health screenings, a blood drive, and a canned food drive for the Northern Dauphin County Food Bank. Guests could also shop from a ton of vendors (I bought my first bag of fat-burning coffee! Too tempting to resist!) and enjoyed a variety of entertainment including line dancing, music, and more! My awesome Halifax students, dubbed the Halifax Hotties, came to help me share some of our favorite Zumba songs with the crowd!
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| Purple and Pigtails for Catie's Wish |
In 2009, a beautiful 7-year-old girl named Catie lost her life to cancer. Her dying wish? To raise enough money to cover the operating expenses of St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital on her birthday, April 23rd. Her family, from Mechanicsburg, PA, works to raise over $1.4 million each year to make Catie's wish come true. Led by my original Zumba instructor and owner of Progress Fitness, Liza Smith, we teamed up to raise over $3,000 for the Catie's Wish Foundation! All while wearing our purple and pigtails!
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| Zum-bots for NHS Autism School |
Calling all Zum-bots (another fun theme)! The CDC's latest statistics show that 1 in 68 children have an autism spectrum disorder (ASD). On Saturday afternoon, I participated in a Zumbathon Charity Event to support the NHS Human Services Autism School in Carlisle - a wonderful school that serves all students on the autism spectrum, ages 5-21. We even had a few awesome students join us on the stage!
Beto may have created Zumba unintentionally, but the power of the program is undeniable. One magical "mistake" has led to MILLIONS of lives being changed for the better.
Beto, THANK YOU for inviting us to the party!
The opinions and views expressed by this ZCOM Volunteer on this website are solely those of the ZCOM Volunteer and do not reflect the opinions or views of Zumba Fitness, LLC, its subsidiaries, officers, directors, employees and agents.
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