Dearest MDT Community!

What an extraordinary event we experienced this past weekend for our annual "Raise the Barre" Dance-a-thon and fundraiser! The amount of school spirit, enthusiasm and support was absolutely amazing! We raised an unbelievable $87,591!!!!! Remarkable! Generous! Inspiring! Our community came together to support, enhance and sustain a program that they believe in and feel proud to be a part of! I wholeheartedly thank each and every person who poured energy, time and resources into this cause! From the bottom of my heart, the gratitude is enormous, and it absolutely means so much to our students and to our future!

We had such great artists sharing their craft with all the participants of the Dance-a-thon. Maggie Calegari taught a wonderful yoga class to begin the day. Julia Adams followed that with an upbeat and engaging contemporary class. Everybody got their groove on, and smiles were everywhere during Hannah Eaton's lively and fun hip-hop class. We finished up the dance portion of the day with Naby and the African drumming dance class, which was powerful, inspiring and all out FUN was had by all in Naby's class! If you weren't able to join us this year, please put it on your calendars for next year to experience it.

The DAT team was brilliantly led by Deana Dearborn and we at MDT can't thank her, Sherri Yoshizu, Crissy Sauter, Alyssa Morris, Amanda Hahn, Monica Salvador, Lexi Pittman, and Leslee Loeber enough for all they did. Many parent volunteers came alongside Deana, Erica Allen and this team to make the event happen and I hope you know the appreciation we feel for you!

The students of MDT nominated and recognized 27 dancers for the Raise the Barre "Spirit of MDT" scholarship. The finalist were Adelaide Vail who received 2nd place and it was Charlie Newhoff who received 1st place. It is always so heartwarming to hear the thoughtful and heartfelt message about how our students lift up and inspire each other! Thank you to the students who take time out to recognize their fellow peers.

Our online fundraising campaign will continue until the end of the month, so if you missed the opportunity to donate, please know that any donation size makes such a difference for our program! We came close to our fundraising goal, and I really commend all those that went above and beyond to raise donations. I have included the link to donate below if anyone would like to help us reach our final goal! We had an incredible response from our alumni outreach, and such amazing efforts by so many of our current MDT families! Just know how much you are all appreciated and that together, we make such a difference for these dancers!

Sending a big hug and a big thank you to each of you!


With a grateful heart,

Lynn and the MDT Staff