Zumbathon!

Dearest Blessings Blog readers, this is what all of my time out of work has been dedicated to the past couple weeks (/months). I organized a Northfield Zumbathon, which is an extended Zumba (Latin dance-based fitness) class that serves as a fundraiser for a cause. Aside from being a Promise Fellow, I am also a Zumba instructor (as most of you may know), so I was able to organize a Zumbathon to benefit the Northfield Youth Sports Collaborative scholarship fund. I chose this organization as the recipient of the fundraiser because the scholarship fund is able to help all youth in Northfield participate in sports regardless of income, so contributing to this cause will make it even more possible for many of my TORCH students to play sports. I had the privilege to try many sports when I was young and eventually end up playing tennis all the way through varsity at Carleton, and I had so much support along the way from my family and my community, both financially and otherwise, and you just learn so much through sports - teamwork, responsibility, time management, etc. It was amazing to have the Zumba community come together to take a little of our time to dance so that we can provide more opportunities for Northfield youth to move and groove if they so choose as well! 

I am so thankful for all who helped the Zumbathon come together yesterday! Awesome instructors, friends who I conscripted to help volunteer, everybody who Zumba-ed with us, and those who donated even without being able to come. In our first ever Northfield Zumbathon, we raised almost $900 for the Northfield Youth Sports Collaborative scholarship fund! That's OPPORTUNITIES for youth we're talking about. We're all doing our part to make this community healthier. I had a blast with everyone, and we should do it again sometime :-) 

I'm also thankful for all of the publicity efforts of the other instructors, and how willingly each of the eight (amazing!) instructors, six of whom I had never met before, volunteered their time to help all of this come together. And I'm thankful for snowballing inspiration, like the Facebook post one of the instructors wrote to her Zumba network prior to the event:  

"There are some things we take for granted.... like being ABLE to exercise - having the body that can do it, the awesome benefits it will give us, etc. Some teens really want to be a part of sports in Northfield but, unfortunately, do not have the funds to pay for school fees. We need to ensure ALL our Northfield students get to be involved in sports. This helps us all- builds our community, supports positive behaviors and growth, and makes a true difference for young lives. Thank you to Kathryn Schmidt for doing all the work to make this event possible! Thank you YOU for just coming out and/or donating to support access to sports for ALL Northfield Youth. :-) Come out today 3:30 to 5 to support those who have one big barrier - the money to cover the cost of the sport or activity! OR, AT LEAST DONATE to support our community's youth and growth!"

For those who were not able to join us yesterday but would still like to donate to provide sports scholarships for Northfield youth, you can still do so here: http://kschmidt.zumba.com/northfield-zumbathon Thank you all!  

If anybody would like to see pictures, check out these links:

Northfield Patch follow-up:

http://northfield.patch.com/articles/zumbathon-raises-money-for-northfield-youth-sports-collaborative#photo-14478316

Southern MN follow-up:

http://www.southernminn.com/northfield_news/sports/article_adb503b5-0591-59e0-8ea5-a4420abc697a.html

Thanks be to God! Glory, hallelujah!