A Soldier's Perspective

Camp Lejeune Ballerinas Spring Recital

I got an email from Lauren about everyone's favorite little ballerinas last night. I intended to post about this then, but got side tracked. I have a special place in my heart for little girls now that I have one myself.

We are gearing up for the huge May dance recital! The December recital was a great success! Thank you so very much for all you did! It was HUGE for us! The girls not only received their beautiful costumes, but we put money towards professional photos, a gift and flowers for them at the end of the recital. There was not a dry eye in the house… especially when the finale' number with the DDDs (Daughters of Deployed Dads) did their routine with the tribute to their deployed dads.

Registration for this semester was just completed, and 15 new ballerinas are on board! AND, half of the new girls have fathers that have just deployed in the last week, or will deploy in the next three months. Most will be gone for 12 to 13 months and will miss the big May dance recital. So we want to make sure that these little girls have a special dance recital. The Camp Lejeune Ballerinas (CLBs) range in age from 3 to 8 years old. Their May recital is a USO/Stage Door Canteen review with music from the 1940s up to today's music. The DDD routine will be "Don't Sit Under the Apple Tree With Anyone Else But Me"… which they will dance and sing to a life-size cutout of a picture of their dad in cammies. The cutouts run $99 each. And of course, these gals will get to keep them after the recital… a life-size picture of daddy in the room! There are many more numbers in this recital, as well as it being held in the big auditorium with a larger stage and set decorations.

Many of you wanted to know if you could help this semester. Though we would not ask you to contribute again, we would ask that you spread the word about this semester's recital, as we must order these costumes no later than 10 weeks before the recital. Even with that, there are delays in receiving the costumes on time, as this time of year is the time that all other dance studios around the U.S. have their recitals. So we are competing for time. If you know of anyone who wanted to contribute last time but did not get in on the donation period, please let them know that donations are open again! Our donation link remains the same http://www.usmilitary.tv/13.html . We want to make this one just as exciting and successful! Our hope is to be able to have someone videotape this one so that we can send DVDs out to the dads in Iraq. Thank you again for all you did for these ballerinas!

Lauren Kelly-Hill

As CJ has already mentioned, all proceeds from the VA Mortgage Center Blog contest will go to the CLBs.