Dancing for fun and to bless others
Chester volunteer raises large amount for kids’ charity
Chester resident Erin Gore enjoys kicking up her heels for a good cause.
Gore combined her love for dancing with her passion and experience as a high school teacher when she took over as instructor of her line dancing class about five years ago.
Gore decided to forgo her instructor’s fee and donate the money to a local charity called PRO Kids.
“We decided the extra money after expenses that the recreation department collected would go to PRO Kids. Line dancing is a PRO Kids fundraiser,” Gore said.
“We are having so much fun. And yet there is money coming in. I think it is such a brilliantly run program. There are a lot of wonderful programs for kids. But this one is so tight and so efficient and so well thought out.”
Cosette Howlett, the PRO Kids co-ordinator for the Municipality of Chester, said PRO Kids stands for Positive Recreation Opportunities for Kids.
“It is for low-income families that live within the Municipality of Chester. If they need financial support to place their kids in recreational activities, we are there to help them,” Howlett said.
“We fundraise the majority of the money we use to pay registration fees and equipment costs,” Howlett added. “The majority of the money
used to pay the registration fees for the kids comes from the community through fundraising efforts.”
That’s why the work of volunteers like Gore is so vital to PRO Kids.
Gore and the Out of Line Dancers club have donated $3,191 to PRO Kids. In addition, Gore organized a Mother’s Day luncheon event in 2019, which raised $1,623 for the charity.
Then when Covid-related health restrictions led to the cancellation of several essential fundraising events for PRO Kids, Gore decided to switch gears and come up with another creative way to fundraise for the organization.
She had volunteered to make cloth masks for the local nursing home in the early days of COVID because there was a shortage of personal protective equipment (PPE). Soon she started to make masks for a local municipal office that offered to buy the masks. Gore insisted the money go to PRO Kids as a donation.
“After I made those, I realized we could sell these things,” Gore said.
Gore teamed up with a friend, Stephanie Vinnedge, a retired health-care worker, in April 2020 to design, gather materials through donations and sew colourful, three-layered fitted cloth masks. They sold them for two summers at the local farmers’ market.
“We have customers who have 10 or 12 masks because they want something to go with every outfit,” Gore said.
According to Howlett, the pair raised $16,463 for PRO Kids from their mask sales.
Gore has used her organizational skills and drive to raise a total of $21,277, as of this newspaper’s press time, for PRO Kids in Chester.
“She is probably one of the most organized people I have ever met because she is able to manage all of these little things she has got her fingers in seamlessly,” Vinnedge said of Gore.
“She makes people around her a better person. Volunteering is a chronic condition for Erin,” Vinnedge said. “That’s what she does if she feels there is a need somewhere in the community, whether she is asked or not.”
“Erin found a way to make the most out of a bad situation,” Howlett said of the mask sales. “She looked at COVID and thought this isn’t good. I need to do something. What can I do? She certainly has helped keep kids active during COVID and helped keep PRO Kids alive. She was keeping the community safe at the same time,” Howlett said.
Howlett said Gore’s financial support had left PRO Kids in a good position as programs and activities start back up as health restrictions are being lifted and requests for assistance from families are on the rise.
“Erin is the leader. She comes up with these wonderful ideas and she makes it happen,” Howlett said.
She said Gore does not like to take any credit but gives credit to the volunteers who assist her.
“She does it without looking for personal recognition, always downplaying her contribution,” Howlett said.
Esther Amiro had assisted Gore with the line dancing group since Gore took over when the previous teacher moved away.
“She is all about community involvement. She tells me it’s just the way she was raised, that you always give back to your community. And that’s her mantra,” Amiro said.
“I like to be useful. But having fun is important to me. And learning is great fun,” Gore said of her volunteer activities.
“Being useful is satisfying,” she said.