You may have heard, but Tuesday night, Pacific Swing Dance Foundation lost its headquarters in the Eaton Fire in Altadena, CA.
If you’d like to help PSDF recover, and provide relief to other dancers who’ve been burned out, please
PSDF HQ is also the home of PSDF co-founder and treasurer, Jason Swihart, his wife, world-renowned DJ Shana Worel, and their two dogs, Hampton and Benny. They are all safely in Colorado and will be back to assess the damage on Saturday, January 11.
In the meantime, PSDF collaborator and friend Nick Williams sprang into action and reminded the entire swing dance community that the Rhythm Relief Fund was create to help in exactly this sort of disaster. While the initial 2020 campaign was created to address the loss of work among swing dance professionals caused by COVID-19, we decided shortly after to extend the purpose and try to keep the fund alive.
Since the initial campaign, we’ve been able to pitch in when other dancers hit personal snags, encountered medical emergencies, or needed help buying a laptop for their first term in college. In all, we’ve raised about $162,000 and we’ve used about $152,000 to provide direct, cash aid to members of the swing dance community.
The remaining $10,000 is just what has been given since Wednesday, January 8. It’s humbling to receive this gift from our community—we never imagined ourselves needing financial help when we launched Rhythm Relief and, whatever the outcome of insurance claims and government disaster relief, the money contributed will be used to help members of our swing dance community get through this—and any other—disasters we may encounter.
