Two 13 year old girls, Rachel Fallas and Samantha Sutton, recently organized a dance competition in honor of their dear friend and classmate, Renee Dayan (Rina Chaya Bat Leah), who has been in the hospital for the past eight months.
They came up with the idea for the competition after they saw their friend Jamie Chalme selling sweatshirts that said “Team Renee,” with a prayer for her healing.
“We thought, we should do something in her honor, too, because we love her. Renee loved to dance, so we thought a dance competition would be very apropos,” said Samantha.
Everyone they told about the contest wanted to participate, including community dance instructors, who were happy to choreograph routines for the girls. Teams were made (8 teams of 8 to 10 girls), and everyone was anxious to learn their routines.
Before the day of the event, Rachel and Samantha spent all their time making plans. They decided to donate all proceeds to the Special Children’s Center in honor of Renee’s refuah shelema. They made sure there would be water bottles, sweatshirts, and t-shirts, all with the Team Renee logo, and took care of all the other details—little and big.
The Sunday morning of the event, seventy 7th and 8th grade girls gathered outside Rachel’s house to begin learning their dances. There were enough instructors involved for each team to have their own.
The girls practiced outdoors on the lawn. Everywhere you looked there were girls laughing, dancing, and having fun, and they picked up the moves effortlessly. Then, as if in the blink of an eye, it was time for the competition. The girls performed all of their dance steps flawlessly in front of three judges. Once all the teams had finished, it was up to the judges to deliberate and announce a winner, which wasn’t an easy task. Once the scores were tallied, Renee Marcus’ and Michelle Dweck’s team were the winners. Each of the girls took home a trophy with the Team Renee logo.
The dancing was wonderful, but the highlight of the day was when Lauren Dayan, Renee’s mother, video chatted with Renee, so she was able to see how much she was loved. The smile on her face was priceless!
Renee’s mother was so happy, she thanked all the girls for doing this tremendous mitzvah for her daughter.
Rachel and Samantha would like to thank all of the dance teachers: Paula and Linda Tawil, Helen Shalam, Shula Mann, Renee Marcus, Michelle Dweck, Lauren Lahar, and Margo Dayan. The day couldn’t have happened without their help.
“This was the best day of the summer! I feel so proud of myself and hope we can do this annually,” said a very joyous Rachel, shortly after the event, when she realized that the day she and Samantha had worked so hard for was a great success. Thank you to everyone who joined them on that magical day!
