Back-to-school dance tops off a great summer for District 2 preteens

Kids from all over the community came out for a pre-back-to-school, preteen dance at the LWF Community Hall in Fall River on August 30. Just under 200 children turned out for a last bit of summer fun on the Labour Day weekend before heading back to school.

Barry Dalrymple organizes the dances and has done so for the last three years. “The dances used to be sporadic, but the kids asked to have more of them, so we hold the dances once a month now.”

The number of children who attend can number as many as 300 or so, but so far, trouble has not followed. “In my three years, we’ve never had an incident,” said Dalrymple. “It’s noisy, you can’t hear yourself think with the volume of the music, it’s no use, but the kids are well-behaved when they are here,” he said as the youths bopped around on the dance floor, laughing and having a great time. “When we hold these dances, they do come,” said Dalrymple, “they do dance, and they do have a blast!”

Funds from this months dance were given to the Nova Scotia Provincial Girls Baseball Team, who recently returned from Provincials, where they placed 4th.

Fall River residents Haley LeBlanc and Rebecca Carr were on that team.

“We left on a Tuesday and we began playing on a Monday,” said LeBlanc, who dreams of one day playing on the Canadian Team. “Our toughest game was against B.C. They were winning 5-0 until the last inning, but then we came back with two outs and 5 runs to tie the game. It went into overtime.” And although her team lost to their opposition in the end, LeBlanc was pleased with their results over-all. “It was the best we’ve ever done!”

The dances are held each month, from 7-10 p.m., for students ages 9-13. Watch the sign at the LWF Hall, or visit Events and Notices at the district 2 website, for future monthly dates.