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COVID-19 EMPLYEE RELIEF FUND
DanceSport Education • Apr 08, 2020
Help us Support our Employees During this Time of Need
Every day, our committed employees work to support the community we serve. Now, they need our help. Our organization is committed to ensuring that our employees are able to maintain financial stability and provide day-to-day necessities for their families during the coronavirus crisis.
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We bring the benefits of ballroom dance to the students at their schools, in their classrooms. But due to COVID outbreak, Arizona schools are now mandated to close through the end of the school year and out employees have lost their source of income. Their situation is further aggravated by the Stay-At-Home order issued for the state of Arizona.
Our organization’s most urgent goal is to retain our highly qualified and specially trained personnel, who work with children with autism. Such personnel is rare to find and costly to train and retain. Under normal circumstances, our professionals are long-term committed to the program – however if we lose them because of the COVID-19 disaster, it would be virtually impossible to reinstate the program. Retaining our personnel is critical not only to the existence of the program, but also to the ultimate recipient – children with autism in a school set-up.
We kindly ask that you join us in supporting our dedicated employees. Your gift will help provide immediate financial support so they can purchase essential food, medicines, and other supplies. Help keep our employees safe and healthy so they can eventually return to their work serving our community.
Proud to Show What Our AZ Autism Charter School Students CAN Do!!!
INVEST IN US! Let me share why you should invest in us. We are a small 501(c)(3) non-profit and we bring the benefits of ballroom dance to the students, at their schools, in their classrooms with the highest level of instruction! We make the art of ballroom dance affordable and accessible to all students, especially for those that are low income and at risk. This year, for the first time in Arizona we are bringing the benefits of ballroom dance to 230 K-12 students with autism at the Arizona Autism Charter Schools. It is Arizona's Only Autism-Focused Tuition-Free Charter public school. Students enrolled at this school are on the autism spectrum with varying degrees of intellectual/developmental disabilities. AZ Autism Charter School serves over 40% low income students. 15% of the students are African-American,1% American Indian, 5% - Asian, 51% - Hispanic and 28% white. The ballroom dance experience at the school is part of the students’ project-based life skills curriculum. Many studies and research findings have supported the positive implication of dance therapy to people with autism. We are at the school 4 days /week, delivering 40 ballroom dance classes every week. The impact of ballroom dance that we see is INCREDIBLE, especially with the highest impacted students! We take so many things for granted, including the ability to move, speak, coordinate our body and socialize. Our students need to learn all this, and the art of ballroom dance is helping them tremendously. These students enjoy, love and thrive in our classes. Until our program, they had no such opportunity available to them, alone an opportunity to express themselves in public and show what they CAN do. Please help us get the full $3,000 match by making your tax-deductible donation today. The funds will be used for rehearsals and extended support during their public event performances. This is an unprecedented commitment toward these students with special needs. They want and need to show to the public what they CAN do. This is the first of such successful efforts in Arizona! These students need your support! Say "YES" to them! We are their HOPE! All #AzGivesDay donations are *tax-deductible and will go toward rehearsals and extended support during their public event performances. Please help us get the full $3,000 match by making your tax-deductible donation today. THANK YOU! We are sincerely grateful for those who support our mission and enable us to bring the benefits of ballroom dance to the students with special needs, at their schools, in their classrooms. www.azgives.org/DanceSportEducation *The $2 trillion stimulus package includes the Charitable Giving Incentive, which lifts the existing cap on annual contributions for those who itemize, raising it from 60 percent of adjusted gross income to 100 percent. For corporations, the bill raises the annual limit from 10 percent to 25 percent. Elka Hristova Co-Founder and Director DanceSport Education
The 9th Annual Masquerade Ball GALA hosted by Imperial Ballroom Dance Center and DanceSport Education, was held on December 8, 2019 at the Scottsdale Resort at McCormick Ranch in Scottsdale, Arizona. “This year’s event was incredible. We are thankful for all who donated, and the 300+ people who attended and supported the event and DanceSport Education’s mission.” said event co-host Inna Berlizyeva. “At DanceSport Education, we are very proud of our partnership with Arizona Autism Charter Schools! 230 K-12 students with autism with all range of abilities attending the school, receive 10 ballroom dance lessons daily from our world-class ballroom dance professionals year-round. This is an unprecedented, pioneer effort in Arizona and the US! We are bringing the research and the benefits of ballroom dance to the students with autism at their school, in their classrooms!” said co-founder Elka Hristova. Artem Plakhotnyi, top world class dancesport competitor and event host, emceed the event and was our distinguished on-stage voice for the evening. Gala’s honorary guest Paul Holmes, former British National, UK National and US National Ballroom Dance Champion, and US representative of Freed of London, the world-famous dance shoemaker, announced the sponsorship of two of Imperial’s finest professional ballroom dance couples – Oleg and Michelle and Ivan and Alissa during 2020 and noted: “Our decision to support their dancesport career is not only based on the fact that they are young, rising star professionals, but also that they carry out the mission of DanceSport Education in creating an AMAZING impact in the lives of 230 students at the Arizona Autism Charter Schools.” We were honored to have one of the most prominent Arizona leaders, Diana Diaz-Harrison as the keynote speaker at the 2019 Gala. Diana Diaz is the lead founder and CEO of Arizona Autism Charter Schools, the first autism focused tuition-free public school in Arizona. She is responsible for the expansion of the arts program at the school and bringing the life-long benefits of ballroom dance to ALL students at the school in partnership with DanceSport Education and Imperial Ballroom Dance Company. Diana Diaz-Harrison is the heart and soul of the school. She shared her personal passionate story of starting the school and how the daily participation in ballroom dance is positively impacting ALL 230 students with autism at the Arizona Autism Charter Schools. She praised highly the AMAZING work of Ivan, Alisa, Oleh and Michelle at the school. Diana’s “Dream with Me” tango marked the ending of her speech. The Gala guests enjoyed an amazing kid only ballroom dance theater production “We are the World”, with an unprecedented participation of students from Arizona Autism Charter Schools. They were treated to a state-of-the-art show by Imperial Ballroom’s world-class professionals and top-rated students from the studio.
