Imani Edutainers African Dance Firm has been part of each ExtraGive because the fundraiser’s inaugural 2012 marketing campaign. This 12 months, it’s sponsoring its personal ExtraGive occasion the place it can educate the general public on the traditions and heritage of African cultures.
It’s simply certainly one of greater than 45 occasions being held throughout Lancaster County on Friday through the eleventh annual ExtraGive, the county’s largest day of on-line giving. The dance firm’s free occasion is from 6:15 p.m. to eight p.m. at The Ware Heart, 42 N. Prince St., in downtown Lancaster.
Folks of all ages can have the chance to interact in a cultural studying expertise the place contributors will use West African symbols and masks stencils to design T-shirts, interact in a neighborhood dance class, and discover extra in regards to the matter of African dance.
A signature fundraising occasion of the Lancaster County Neighborhood Basis, the ExtraGive has raised greater than $80 million because it was launched in 2012. Donations to the 516 charities that participated within the 2021 ExtraGive totaled $15.8 million.
Donations for this 12 months’s ExtraGive can be accepted from midnight to 11:59 p.m. Friday. Folks will be capable of go to www.ExtraGive.org, select from greater than 450 native nonprofit organizations, and make a safe on-line donation of $10 or extra. A price of 4.99% per donation can be utilized to any bank card transaction.
“We take part within the ExtraGive as a result of we perceive its significance and its potential to assist the local people and expose organizations like ours to native residents, giving us a possibility to construct relationships, in any other case folks wouldn’t know that we exist,” stated Sonya Mann-McFarlane, founder and director of Imani Edutainers African Dance Firm.
, in keeping with Mann-McFarlane. In a typical 12 months, courses are held within the spring, fall and winter.
Past music and dance, Imani Edutainers recounts historical past, celebrates rites of passage and helps unify communities. And though it’s based mostly in Lancaster metropolis, it supplies providers to people and households throughout the county.
“It began out of a necessity for the neighborhood to expertise African dance and African custom,” stated Mann-McFarlane, who began the group in 1992 in North Carolina out of her love of West African tradition.
When she moved to Lancaster, she continued the group and named it after her daughter. The identify Imani stands for religion and perception.
The dance firm makes use of colourful conventional African dance outfits and interact in superbly choreographed actions to the beat of djembes, conventional African drums. Djembes, pronounced jem-bays, were performed by well-respected, high-class court docket musicians who them for storytelling, and passing on historic, spiritual and cultural data to future generations.
“What we do with Imani goes past dance,” Mann-McFarlane stated. “We share the completely different societies and cultures from the west coast of Africa.”
At Columbia Inventive Manufacturing facility, 40 N. Third St. (second ground), Columbia, friends can have a possibility to assist paint a neighborhood mural whereas listening to stay music by the Dillweed Band.
Columbia Creative Factory seeks to strengthen connections inside the neighborhood by constructing private and social relationships via shared arts experiences. The nonprofit affords courses in pottery wheel, hand-built pottery and mosaic to college students of all ages.
“We’ve participated within the ExtraGive for the previous 5 years, and this 12 months we hope to lift $10,000,” stated board president Mychal LaVia.
Returning this 12 months is Tenfold’s camp out occasion to lift funds and produce consciousness to the challenges confronted by folks experiencing homelessness.
The free occasion can begin at 5:30 p.m. Friday at Clipper Journal Stadium, 650 N. Prince St.in Lancaster metropolis. It runs via Saturday at 8 a.m. Members will play video games, win prizes, cook dinner s’mores, and listen to testimonials from Tenfold’s shoppers.
“Roughly one–third of our neighbors in Lancaster County are at the moment dealing with monetary insecurity, housing instability or homelessness,” stated Tenfold’s CEO Shelby Nauman.
Borne out of the merger of Tabor Neighborhood Companies and Lancaster Housing Alternative Partnership, Tenfold is a housing nonprofit that gives applications, providers and assets associated to housing instability and affordability, from providers to homeless people to homeownership and monetary literacy applications.
Tenfold raised $145,000 throughout final 12 months’s ExtraGive occasion.
“Funds we increase via ExtraGive go towards fueling our crucial providers that serve over 7,000 folks per 12 months,” Nauman stated.
Registration, which is free, is required and due by Thursday. Members should be at the very least 9 years previous. On-line registration is out there at https://wearetenfold.org/camp-out/.
An inventory of the organizations which might be internet hosting occasions is out there at https://www.extragive.org/info/events. (Test occasion web sites or contact occasion organizers to see if there are any prices related to any occasions.)
Nonprofits cite ExtraGive nondiscrimination policy in decision not to take part in annual fundraiser
