Best foot forward
Oak Lawn dance teacher’s shoe donation effort earns scouting’s highest award
Students sometimes complained to their Oak Lawn Park District dance teacher Lily O’Dea about their shoes being too tight. Their moms chime in, too, about the steep price of buying new ones as their children’s feet grow.
So O’Dea got to work, creating a donation box for used dance shoes and getting it placed at the Oak View Center and Museum in Oak Lawn, where she teaches. Donations of ballet, tap and other dance shoes have poured in since the box was set up in February, topping 100 at one point.
Besides being a dance teacher, O’Dea is a senior at Richards High School in Oak Lawn, as well as a Girl Scout in Oak Lawn Troop 60102. The donation box effort helped her earn the Gold Award, the highest honor in Girl Scouting.
“Tap shoes can run you $100, if not more, depending on how fast you grow,” she said, noting her own pair cost $150. “Parents are having to buy a new $100 plus pair each time. A parent would say, ‘I just need to wait a few weeks for another paycheck.”
Dawn Farrell, Performing Arts supervisor at Oak Lawn Park District, began teaching O’Dea as a youngster and said it’s been an “honor and privilege” to have her be part of their Infiniti Dance Company.
“I’m so proud she chose something dance-related to achieve the Girl Scout Gold Award,” Farrell said. “This project will help dancers for years to come and we have Lily to thank for it.”
That’s on top of O’Dea’s usual teaching efforts.
“Having grown up through the program, Lily has a special love that makes her passion for teaching and her students like no other,” Farrell said.
O’Dea has loved dancing since she started at age 3 and is a co-captain of the Park District’s IndepenDANCE Dance Team. She teaches ballet, hip hop, poms, tap and ballet combo, and for older kids, lyrical dance, which combines ballet and jazz techniques.
“I’ve just grown up doing it,” O’Dea said. ‘It’s really fun.”
Teaching skills came naturally, O’Dea said, after she became used to helping out with her baby cousin. And it’s a rewarding job, too.
“I get to see their progress all year long, which is awesome,” she said.
Joining Girl Scouts also was an easy call. Her mom, Karen O’Dea is co-leader of the Oak Lawn-based
troop, her brother was a Boy Scout and she watched him diligently meet every requirement, eventually earning his Eagle Scout medal and badge.
“It kept me going in Girl Scouts,” Lily DoDea said. Her troop has organized many fundraisers, volunteered at shelters and prepared meals for homeless people. They’ve also painted murals with inspirational sayings at schools. She said the troop focuses on the principles of Scouting, rather than just earning badges.
“My favorite part is the girls,” she said. “I’ve gotten really close with girls I grew up with.”
At Richards High School, O’Dea is a member of the Leo Club, president of the Feminism Club and in the National Honor Society. Outside of school, she volunteers at the Live Like John Service and Leadership Institute, which helps fund pediatric
brain cancer research at Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago.
She has already been accepted into Southern Illinois University Edwardsville’s nursing program. After working in the field for a few years, she hopes to obtain a certificate as a nurse anesthetist.
But teaching dance and helping kids get the proper dance shoes is never far from her mind.
A mother of one of her students came up to her several weeks ago to thank her for the donation box, saying she didn’t want to just toss her daughter’s dance shoes and was happy to donate them instead, saying, “now I can give them back to the dance program that taught all my girls,” O’Dea said.