Donahey’s Ashton Live Dance Extravaganza
In recognition of the wonderful event Donahey’s held in September 2008, the producer of BBC Children In Need Manchester invited Donahey’s to the official fundraisers party at The Chill Factore where the 2008 North West regional programming came live from.
We took our big cheque down along with some of our junior dancers who danced and shaked their pom poms to some High School Musical songs live on TV. Then later on some of our expert Salsa dancers joined us to dance Salsa Rueda live on TV – here’s some of the pictures…
Here’s how we did it…
On Saturday 20th Sept the temperature was sizzling in Ashton town centre as the market place came alive with hundreds of dancers from across Tameside raising money for Children In Need. The grand total pledged by all our dancers was £10,483.96 – the biggest ever!
The sun shone as Tameside’s biggest ever free dance show got under way with over 500 dancers of all ages taking to the stage to show off their skills; Salsa, Rock ‘n’ Roll, Ballroom, Latin, and performances from hit movies Hairspray, Dirty Dancing and High School Musical.
Organisers Paul & Shirley Donahey said, ‘We couldn’t have asked for a better day, the dancers were really enjoying themselves and couldn’t stop smiling. Once they got on that stage we couldn’t get them off, especially when Pudsey Bear made his appearance’
Every dancer had been sponsored on the day and received a souvenir medal and certificate for their efforts. Special guest Chelsea Norris from KEY 103’s breakfast show introduced the dancers; Chelsea said ‘What a terrific event and a great way to raise money’
The Mayor of Tameside thanked Donahey’s for organising such a fabulous event for the people of Tameside.
This is our 9th year running this event and as we’re celebrating 40 years of dancing, this one had to be spectacular. We wanted to organise a dance event that all our members young & old, plus their families could come along to and enjoy. Children raising money for children, what could be better? This took the amount our dancers have raised for BBC Children In Need over the past 9 years to £50,000
Ashton Town Centre Spokesperson Howard Murphy said, ‘I don’t think we could have had a better day, the show was excellent.’ Centre Manager of The Ladysmith shopping centre Lyn Williams said ‘Wonderful, what a well organised & run event, everybody was clearly enjoying themselves’.
The show was part of Ashton Town Centre’s exciting line-up of summer events and is put together with the support of Ashton Underlined Management Initiative, Ashton Markets & The Ladysmith Shopping Centre.
