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Paying it forward
By Catherine Ernst
A journey that truly began with a thousand steps came to a fantastic conclusion for the Aspire Dance Academy at their May 15 year-end show.
The 2015/16 dance season was full of local activities as well as two very successful out-of-town competitions.
My daughter, Ashley Schram, has been dancing with the Aspire Dance Academy for nine years now and became an assistant teacher this season. She is aware that my union, CUPE 2090 (the inside and outside workers of the city) has a community action initiative. She asked if she could make a request of the union to provide two $250 scholarships for her and her fellow dancer/assistant teacher, Justine Gauthier to give out to two of their students.
Studio owner Michelle Navartil has given out scholarships to deserving students and the girls wanted to “pay it forward” as they had seen the studio owner do. I am blessed to work with an amazing group of people through my union and they had no problem providing the girls with the two scholarships. (Above photo – left to right: Mathew Pocock (CUPE 2090 Secretary), Justine Gauthier (Aspire Dance Academy), Ashley Schram (Aspire Dance Academy) and Melissa Willman (CUPE 2090 Treasurer).
When the dance portion of the year-end show was complete Miss Michelle came out with Ashley and Justine to present the two scholarships to Emily Keitch and Cassidy Adams.
In a true “pay it forward” moment Miss Michelle also presented two scholarships of her own to two young gentleman in the competitive program. Lucas Damant and Nathan Thorn are two very talented dancers and an absolute pleasure to watch. They are an asset to the competitive program and I look forward to seeing what next season brings!
The final presentation of the evening was a scholarship for Ashley and Justine to attend the 2016 Groove Street Convention in Calgary along with the studio owner. The girls were completely shocked by the presentation but delighted as well.
CUPE 2090 members, thank you for being part of making an evening very special for a group of young people and showing what community spirit is all about!
