OVANDO - The Ovando Community Education Endowment (OCEE) group will be hosting an old-time community square and folk dance Friday, Sept. 23 at the Ovando School. The purpose of the dance is to raise funds for the endowment and to provide a fun evening to bring folks together to celebrate the school and community.
The Ovando School is a two-room schoolhouse that provides a unique and excellent educational experience for the preschool to eighth grade students who attend. The school with its attached gym and library also serves as the center of community life in this small town. As with many schools all over Montana, however, funding is always a challenge, and the school has struggled to maintain its operations and also pay its teachers a decent salary.
Montana teachers have the lowest starting salaries of teachers in any state, and smaller schools tend to have the lowest of those, with salaries well below the estimated living wage. As a result, after new teachers have a couple of years of experience teaching in a small school, they often have to move to a job in a larger school in order to make ends meet.
In order to continue to provide a high-quality education for the community’s children, and maintain the school as a community center, a group of Ovando citizens started the Ovando Community Education Endowment. As OCEE members feel that teachers are the most important ingredient of a good education, the purpose of OCEE is to help supplement teachers’ salaries and benefits and secondly to support educational activities and maintenance of the school as a community center.
In the spirit of this, the Community Dance will offer an opportunity for folks from Ovando and other communities to enjoy an evening of several fun activities at and near the school. Many community members have been working to make the evening a special event. Trixi’s Antler Saloon is offering a special spaghetti dinner from 6-7 p.m., and will donate a portion of the proceeds to the endowment fund. Anyone interested in attending should make a reservation ahead of time.
The dance will start at 7 p.m. at the Ovando School, located at 108 Birch Street. Mark Matthews is a dance caller and instructor who teaches about social dances and calls dances for the Missoula Folklore Society. He has lots of experience in helping beginners feel comfortable learning dance steps and he will teach and call the dances.
Square and other social dances are a great way for people of all ages to interact in a fun and active way with lots of others; it is a group activity! Matthews will also teach a dance workshop for the students and anyone else interested in getting a head start on learning them Thursday, Sept. 22, from 1-3 p.m. at the school.
Live music at the dance will be provided by the Slayden Family Band and guests. Jen Slayden taught music at the school for three years. She and her children and local musicians will play a variety of instruments.
There will be some games with prizes for adults and children, and an auction of homemade dessert boxes. Beer, wine and other beverages will be available along with snacks. There will be an entrance fee of $5.00 per family or a donation to the fund.
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