Dancing Towards a Stronger Community with Zumba!
- By
- Moriah Santiago, George Elementary School
- Topics:
- Access to Healthy Foods, Community Involvement, Physical Activity Participation
In the beginning of the year, the teachers decided they wanted to start working out together after school once a week, but were unsure of what to do. After discussion among teachers, one staff member connected us to a Zumba teacher who is also a parent of a past student at George Elementary. Iris started teaching us Zumba once a week, free of cost, to see if we would like it. After 2 weeks, we were hooked so she began teaching twice a week and only charging $2 per class! Out of the kindness of her heart, she didn’t want to charge us at all but we wanted to make sure she was compensated for her dedication towards improving our health in a fun way. Flash forward to five months later, and we are still dancing twice a week after school and have grown stronger as a community because of it. Parents, teachers, and other members of our Springdale District community come to laugh, dance, and sweat together. People bring their children who play together while we dance, and if you forget your $2 one day, Iris would rather you come and pay the next time rather than miss a class. This Success Story would not be possible without the hard work and dedication of our Zumba teacher Iris and our community for being open to trying something new together. We will continue classes into the summer, and will add a nutrition component through adding post workout snacks, and learning together what our bodies need nutritionally after we workout.