Now that I’ve adopted a much more positive outlook today, I am getting very excited about this dance party!  I was told this morning that the families in Sderot are aware of this party and are very excited!!  We will be accompanied to the playground by Shahar Hermelin, Director of Tourism, JNF-USA – Israel Operations.  I was told that he will be following the guidelines of the IDF, and if for any reason we should not head south, he will phone me to cancel.

In the meantime, most of our dance floor give-aways are on their way to Israel as I type.  Tamar packed mostly everything in one of her family’s 10 allowed suitcases.  We are bringing tinsel wands, blinkee rings, Michael Jackson sequined gloves, glow necklaces, light-up peace sign necklaces, tattoos, and USA silicone bracelets.  I’m also bringing a couple of roll-up Limbo sticks and my ever-popular “Betsy’s Boogie Bingo.” However, this game will have a twist.  Tamar, Yael, Caley and I secretly replaced some American songs with some Israeli songs.  Tamar re-created the Bingo Boards and wrote them out entirely in Hebrew.  Too Cute!  The best thing about all this stuff is that the children will all have dance floor goodies to take home with them, and we will leave the Bingo Game ~ Boards, Markers, CD, the Limbo Sticks, and the Dance Party CDs so that the staff at the playground will be able to use these fun items with the kids in the future…

We’ll be doing a dance warm-up, some circle dances, follow-alongs, line dances, and free-style dancing.  Also, we’ll be playing some circle games, Limbo, and the Israeli version of Betsy’s Boogie Bingo.  I am very hopeful that this party will come to be, as it is going to be a BLAST!!

I still have to put together the playlist for the Zumba Family Party.  That won’t take too long, so I’ll deal w/ that tomorrow.  Tomorrow is total packing day, as I haven’t packed a thing yet!  I’ve been very busy finishing up classes, rehearsals, returning phonecalls, etc.  Tomorrow is nothing but focusing on prepping to leave.  Yeah!  (I’ll be sad to take our new  puppy, Wilson, to his trainer for boarding, but someone needs to look after him!!) 

To read more about the playground, checkout And be sure to check out the letter of thanks from the Mayor of Sderot. Pretty moving…

Nighty-night!

Advertisement