Winter formal dance hosted in Washington

WASHINGTON — KC Hall in Washington held a locally organized dance for people with disabilities on Friday night. Co-organizers Dawn Garcia and Diane Harden said they weren’t affiliated with local disability organizations, but wanted to plan a new event for the community.

Garcia said she was pleased with the turnout and theme as participants got ready to dance after dinner.

“We had 106 chairs out, and I think they’re all filled,” she said. “We thought, it was winter, why not get people dressed up and excited about going out? A lot of people don’t dress up anymore, so why not.”

With the dance’s popularity, Garcia said the duo hoped to keep hosting annual dances in future years, likely with new themes each time.

“People were good about donating and we have a lot of people here,” she said. “We think we’re probably going to do it every year. Not a winter formal, but maybe a dance … possibly, it’s still kind of new.”

Harden said the event was possible thanks to support from the community. Much of the preparation involved donation-asking around town.

“The only problem that we had was we’re not an organization, we’re just doing this out of the goodness of our hearts … so it was a little harder to collect donations and things like that,” she said. “But, because we know, — and especially Dawn knows — so many people, the donations just came in.”

Still, Harden said the two planned to keep their event organized themselves, without the collaboration of other groups.

“We just did it because we love these people, we’ve worked with them for years, and just decided that this is something they’d really enjoy,” she said. “And we can see by the turnout, we’ve seen that they really, really appreciated it.”

Comments: Kalen.McCain@southeastiowaunion.com