As soon as the swing and Dixieland music could be heard in the Louis Room about 3 p.m. Saturday, a senior couple began dancing. By 3:15p.m., Northwestern students and senior citizens were mixing on the dance floor at Norris University Center.
About 50 local seniors and students gathered to kick up their heels at the fourth annual Senior Gala sponsored by the Northwestern Community Development Corps. Giant paper hearts and pink, white and red streamers and balloons decorated the Louis Room for this year’s Valentine’s Day-inspired theme, “Young Love.”
NCDC special events chair and Weinberg senior Kelly Dougherty said she and her co-chair, Medill junior Alondra Canizal, planned this year’s gala with the goal of bringing Evanston’s senior citizen and college-age communities together.
NCDC members and several student volunteers attended to mingle and dance with the guests. Weinberg senior Nidhya Navanandan, co-chair of NCDC, said some students volunteered so they could fulfill the three community service hours required for dancers in Dance Marathon, but others signed up because they enjoy helping with the event.
“I think I would have done it even if it didn’t count for DM,” Communication freshman Allison Pichert said. “It’s so fun.”
Musicians of all ages provided the beat that got participants moving. The North Shore Senior Center Stompers, decked out in rainbow-striped shirts, played upbeat music featuring drums, bass, keyboard, saxophone, trumpet and clarinet.
“There is nobody in the band who is not a legitimate senior citizen,” said Warren Breckenridge, the group’s retiring manager.
Two members of NU’s Ballroom Latin And Swing Thing also came to perform and give a foxtrot lesson.
“They’re darling,” Chicago resident Sylvia Porter said of the BLAST members. “I love youngsters.”
After the performance almost all of the gala participants, both students and seniors, took the dance lesson. A few remained at their tables to watch and cheer their friends.
“I don’t do a lot of these steps right,” said Evanston resident Rodney Erickson as he watched his wife, Jane, during the lesson. “It’s hard to teach an old dog new tricks.”
As the Stompers played their last song, “Show Me the Way to Go Home,” Porter sang along as she took off her dancing shoes.
Lauren Parnell, a SESP junior and NCDC co-chair, said this year’s Senior Gala was successful, but she already has one suggestion to keep in mind for the fifth annual gala next year. Local resident Joan Hickman said the “Electric Slide” would be a great way to end the dance, but the Stompers didn’t know the song.
“I’ll write that down on my list for next year,” Parnell said.
Reach Maureen Rohn at [email protected].
