Toe-tapping and a lot of laughs over 12 hours has raised more than $20k for hospice.
Sue Wilson of Sioux Line Dancing NZ, along with her partner Danuta Newport, are the driving force behind the annual Dance-a-thon, which this year had a target to raise of $15k.
Sue, who has been a dance teacher in Motueka, Māpua and Richmond for 30 years, says right through her line dancing career they’ve always had a fundraiser for something.
“Each year we’d choose a different thing, and in 2017 we decided Nelson Tasman Hospice is where our support needs to be.”
Since 2017, the group of dancers have donated more than $70,000 to hospice through diffferent fundraisers, and in 2022, they held the first 12-hour dance-a-thon which raised just over $15k.
“It was when they were looking at the new hospice, we thought we can help out. We didn’t want to be putting money into bricks and mortar, we wanted the money in the community so people can stay at home for longer,” Sue says.
She says Saturday’s event, which ran at Club Waimea from 9am to 9pm, was a fantastic day with a lot of laughs. They had hoped to exceed the 2022 figure.
Ran almost like a telethon, the fundraiser board was updated a few times throughout the day, while more than 100 dancers took to the floor at different times.
Sue says when the final figures were put up, from back-to-front at around 8.50pm, she was in disbelief. $20,181.
Prior to the event, Sue said it would be a hard ask with everyone having to watch their money in the current climate.
“I was overwhelmed and felt quite emotional,” Sue says of the final figure.
“Last time the funds enabled us to purchase syringe drivers which hospice said they really needed, which is to administer medication.”
They are hoping to meet with Hospice this week to figure out what ‘wish-list’ items they can provide with the funds.
“They work so hard for the money,” she says of the local hospice.
“Being able to do things like this and raise that kind of money, it really does touch your heart.”
