Salsa St. Lucia, a group that has been around for almost four years, has already made its mark as a formidable force when it comes to spreading the joy and appreciation of Latin dance in Saint Lucia. This year alone the group hosted several monthly Latin dance parties, classes and its annual extravaganza which, for the first time. encompassed an entire weekend of activities in September. The group has also participated in regional workshops and congress on the Latin dance movement.
Since its inception, Salsa St. Lucia has made it part of its mandate to give back to society, the Holy Trinity Children’s Home being one of its beneficiaries. This year, quite apart from closing off the year with a fund-raising event in aid of a local charity, Salsa St. Lucia was moved to partake in activities during “Cancer Awareness Month” in October.
Salsa St. Lucia.
“What we did was that through our access to various radio, television and news medium we raised the general consciousness as it relates to breast cancer, early detection, screening, check and so on,” says group founder Peter St. Rose. At the end of October the group also staged a charity event, raising EC$1,500 which itcontributed to ‘Faces of Cancer’.
“This was a new experience for us taking up this cause and we were also able to partner with the Walk for Cancer as Friends in the Fight, partnering Yoplait through CFL,” St. Rose says.
For Salsa St. Lucia’s annual end of year charity event, the group has taken up the issues relating to women and girls with the aim of demonstrating its abhorrence to any form of violence against them. “We are aware that this violence comes in many forms and it is not just the scars we see from the physical violence. You have the economic, social, phsychological and emotional; the rape, the incest, the abuse and on and on,” St. Rose lamented.
Next Friday 11th December, Salsa St. Lucia will be hosting “Blackout” for its annual charity event. It will be held at the Bougainvillea Room at the Bay Gardens Hotel from 9:30 pm. The evening of Latin fun will begin with drinks tastings as well as sampling of fruit-cake in keeping with the Christmas spirit. There will also be mini Latin classes and demonstrations followed by the dance party until 2:00 am.
Following the event, contributions will be made towards the At Risk Women’s Support Centre and the Uptown Gardens Girls’ Centre.
Salsa St. Lucia is calling on its friends and supporters to show up in large numbers next Friday wearing black with a hint of colour to support the cause. Among the sponsors are RCI, Choice TV, WLBL, Saint Lucia Distillers, Merchandizing Plus, Glace, RJ Clarke, Peter & Company Ltd, Sunshine Snacks, Sunshine Cereals, Bay Gardens Hotel, Yellow Tail Wines, Devon Biscuits and Atwell Dalgliesh.
