2009 - Charity Highland Festival concept
The concept of a Charity fundraising competition is not a new idea - Mrs Nixon successfully ran a similar event in Paisley for many years to raise money for her son William's charity. The idea was broached again by a fellow judge who approached us with the concept of resurrecting the charity competition following our son's diagnosis of Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy late 2008. We decided that this was an ideal opportunity to raise funds and awareness not only for Logan's condition, but other long-term illnesses known to dancers and their families - and the Charity Highland Dancing Festival was born.
From the positive responses from other dance friends and associates it was clear that this venture would be well supported and with the help of local dancing organisers we knew that we would have the best support available to run the first event successfully.
Sandra Lees (a competition organiser, teacher and adjudicator) runs an annual dancing festival in West Dunbartonshire and each year an event is held during the competition to raise awareness and funds for a chosen charity - the following have benefitted over the last nine years : Children's Hospice Association Scotland (CHAS), Robin House (Balloch), St Margaret's Hospice (Clydebank), Cystic Fibrosis Trust, Fling for Logan. Sandra has a young highland dancer within her school who has Cystic Fibrosis. Following Sandra's donation to Fling for Logan, we discussed the concept with her and she gladly volunteered to organise this charity competition in 2011 in aid of Cystic Fibrosis - The Charity Highland Dancing Festival was beginning to develop.
Following the listing of the festival on several dance forums, Anji McAvoy has been in touch with me with the idea of running the competition in 2012 for the National Autistic Society. Anji's son Lewis has autism and she was keen to support both NAS and the Charity Festival idea - the Festival is now well on its way.
Board approval has been sought, entry forms developed and we have started to look for help from the Highland Dancing Community in terms of trophy sponorshop, raffle donations, canteen donations and general help on the day for the first event. We have been overwhelmed by the response of our fellow dancing friends. In terms of trophy donations we now have all the trophies we require, which is greatly appreciated (trophy sponsors listed below).
For the purposes of consistency and continuity, a small overseeing committee has been formed to take overall organisational responsibility for all the competitions, while each year a local organising team with specific links to the chosen charity will be formed for the purpose of running that particular event.
2010 - Inaugural Festival - charity: Action Duchenne
2011 - Charity : Cystic Fibrosis
2012 - Charity: National Autistic Society
Anyone interested in holding a future competition, with an interest in a particular condition/charity please contact me (please note that competition organising experience would be required).