GARDEN ROUTE NEWS - Last weekend a special Zumbathon was held with the aim of raising funds to help send two local dancers to the USA to attend the American Academy of Ballet (AAB) for their summer ballet programme in July.
The Zumbathon took place at the St George's Church and more than 60 people attended the special event.
The Zumba instructors from Knysna (Ivi Leiar and Zélie and Céline de Villiers) were joined on stage by Merle Hagerman (Plettenberg Bay) as well as Giti Mohammadi and Shawn van der Berg (Sedgefield) to make the attendees sweat for three hours.
An average of 16 000 steps was recorded on numerous sport watches.
The event marked the end of the fundraising for two local ballerinos, Cayden Bean and Rikhardt van Niekerk, who dance under the experienced eye of Sidwell Roman at the Sidwell Roman School of Ballet in Knysna.
Some of the attendees who took part in the Zumbathon.
Raffle tickets (with the promise of prizes worth R51 000) were sold for over a month and the generosity of the community exceeded the organisers' wildest dreams. People shared and spread the word of the raffle over social media networking and many people from overseas even bought tickets.
Through these efforts, an incredible R70 000 was raised for the two boys, who thanked the community at the Zumbathon and treated the audience to a ballet performance on stage.
Céline, the organiser of the fundraising effort, again thanked the businesses that generously donated towards the raffle prizes. Without this, it would not have worked.
These were: Quintet of Cuisines, Featherbed Nature Reserve, Knysna Hollow Country Estate, Nautical Nails & Beauty, The Cake Boutique, Rexford Manor Boutique Hotel, Waterfront Lodge, Ocean Odyssey Knysna, Christiana Guest Lodge, At the Woods Guest House, Courtney Drew's Dance and Yoga Studio, Stormsriver Adventures, Allkote, Leisure Isle Lodge, Sidwell Roman Pilates studio, IV Plus, Monkeyland, Birds of Eden, Jukani, and animal artist Colleen Mulrooney.
The instructors who led the Zumbathon. From left: Ivi Leiar, Giti Mohammadi, Shawn van der Berg, Céline de Villiers, Zélie de Villiers and Merle Hagerman.
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