Inspire and Ipswich School of dancing’s popular fundraising event Strictly Charity returned for the sixth year to Trinity Park this weekend and raised a massive £20,000 to support local young people in need.
The annual fundraiser sponsored by Willis Watson Towers is in the style of popular BBC show Strictly Come Dancing delivered in partnership with Ipswich School of Dancing. 11 volunteer dancers who have little or no previous dancing experience have been fundraising and learning to dance for the past ten weeks with the support of semi-professional partners and teachers from Ipswich School of Dancing.
This all leads up to the Strictly Charity Finale where dancers perform one Ballroom and one Latin dance to a crowd of friends, family and Inspire supporters as well as a panel of judges including Ballroom star and world-class judge Gary Edwards, Sarah Wagstaff-Till, Janine Ellis from Ipswich School of Dancing and Peter Dawes Patron of Inspire.
Each of Inspire’s volunteer dancers have been fundraising whilst training for the big Strictly Charity finale, the event raised a grand total of £20,000 for the local charity. This will help the charity continue to provide life changing personal development programmes and engaging sport activities that local disadvantaged young people need and may not otherwise have access to. In 2018 Inspire engaged with over 400 young people with their personal development programmes that last year saw over 75% move into work, education or further training.
Sara Warburton, Fundraising & Events Officer at Inspire says: ‘We are amazed with the support we have received this year for our Strictly Charity fundraiser event, we have by far exceeded the amount we had hoped to raise and are truly grateful to everyone who has supported us with this event. We would also like to thank our incredible volunteer dancers who have worked tirelessly over the last ten weeks and the Ipswich School of Dancing who have given up so much of their time to support the dancers and the charity. The amount we have raised is going to make a huge difference to the young people we support through our programmes’.
If you’ve got Strictly fever and want to dance for us in next year’s event, get in touch with our Fundraising Officer, Sara Warburton on 01473 353194 or saraw@inspiresuffolk.org.uk
