Community Corner

Public Invited to Community-Wide Zumba-thon

An afternoon of dance at a Westborough church will help a family in need.

 

If you can move your body, you can Zumba. So says Martha Convers, a Zumba instructor who is inviting the public to join in a community-wide Zumba-thon on Saturday, June 16 from 5:30 to 7 p.m. at 160 Flanders Rd. The event is a fundraiser for a group of local teens that will head to Mexico this summer to build a home for a family in need.

“It’s an exhilarating workout, a fun workout,” Convers told Westborough Patch. “I lost 50 pounds doing [Zumba]…we workout, have fun and make a party of each class.”

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Convers is one of seven Zumba instructors who will lead the dance on Saturday. Money raised will be used to help fund 31 people from the student ministries program at Chapel of the Cross. The group, led by Director Bethany Needham, will travel to Ensenada, Mexico from July 30 to Aug. 6 where they will assist in the building of a home and a daycare facility in the community.

“Most of the students are in eleventh and twelfth grade, some have just graduated,” said Needham. “They are from Westborough and surrounding towns.”

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When the group arrives in Mexico, it will break into two teams. One will help the community by working on a free daycare facility where families can safely place their children while going off to work.

The second team will assist in constructing a prefab home for a family in need. The cost of the home is $5700, Needham explained. She said that many families have land on which to build a home but no money to afford a home. She said it is common to see makeshift dwellings or tarps on the properties in the poor community.

“We get to meet the family who will get the home,” Needham said. “At the end of our time there, we pray and then give them the key to the home on their own land.”

This is the second year that a group of students from Chapel of the Cross will travel to Ensenada, working with an international organization called Youth with a Mission (YWAM). YWAM provides a housing facility for the students that includes running water and a bathroom.

Needham said she hopes the relationship with Ensenada is a long-lasting one, and she said that future trips are likely.

The cost for each person to participate is $1400, a hefty fee for many. So the group has organized a number of fundraisers to help defray the expense.

Convers, who has a daughter participating in the program, hopes the Zumba-thon will provide a healthy contribution to the program.

Admission to the Zumba-thon is $15 per person. She said that it is probably not appropriate for very young children, but those around age 10 and up can participate. “The children will be asked to dance if they come.”

Participants will meet in the sanctuary. “And come prepared to dance,” said Convers.

 

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