A Community United for One Cause

The Nelson County Community DanceBlue began as an idea to unite others by helping an amazing cause. The planning process started by recruiting potential members from Thomas Nelson High School. From there, we communicated with other local high schools to get potential committee members from other areas. In the end, we had a planning committee made up of Thomas Nelson and Nelson County High School students, along with periodic help from Bardstown HS students.

Once our committee was built, we began to plan the event. We started by establishing a date and time the event would begin and conclude. We decided the event would occur on September 8th and start at 6pm before concluding at 6am the following day. We chose this date because September is Childhood Cancer Awareness Month and thought it was only fitting to hold our event in this time. With our date and time set in stone, we began to plan activities.

We wanted our mini to stand out, so we chose several themes for the event and included a live performance portion. After talking with a few managers of local celebrities, we were able to secure a performance by Magnolia Vale and Since Anaheim. These performances would later prove to be a great motivator for those who were undecided about attending our event. We then filled in smaller activities and draw ins to fill the remaining event time. Our plan was as follows:

6pm: Opening ceremony begins
7pm: Dinner is served during the America Grillin’ and Chillin theme
9pm: Grab your grass skirt for Aloha Luau
11pm: Red, White, and DanceBlue theme begins and Magnolia Vale performs before Since Anaheim
1am: Turn up and show off your best dance moves for Y2K
3am: Keep your energy up with Zumba during Mañana de Fiesta
5am: Memorial Hour begins
6am: The event concludes once the cancer-affected speakers present their speeches

Once the event was planned out in full, we began gathering donations and forming silent auction baskets. Occasionally working on decor for the event. We also secured food for the event and someone to prepare it. Once all of the silent auction items were ready, we worked only on different decorative items. We also began recruiting parent chaperones for the event.

On the day of the event, we encountered some setbacks. Our security team did not show and were unable to attend, close to half of the people who reserved tickets did not attend, and we had some technical difficulties with one of the performers. Luckily, the NCC DB team were able to work through these and still host an amazing event. We learned a lot in our first year´s event and are very grateful for this knowledge. Knowledge that we will use to make our second event even better than the first. We hope to beat our previous total of $4,509 and feature some of the same components of our first mini.