Dance for Good Recap

By Jennifer Nicholas

Children Beyond Our Borders Inc. hosted its third annual salsa benefit, Dance for Good, last Friday in downtown Gainesville. ​

​Dance for Good all started back in 2016 by Board Members Dr. Brendan Williams and Dr. Diana Montoya-Williams. What began as an event to honor both their wedding anniversary and their passion for giving back to the community, has turned into a CBOB yearly tradition. It annually brings the salsa-loving community together in Gainesville for a great cause- all of the proceeds go straight back to CBOB’s local programs.

There was never a dull moment at this year’s Dance for Good. The night was filled with live music, dancing, delicious food, raffles and a silent auction. As soon as our guests walked in, they were immediately greeted with a variety of popular Latin music played by Elio Piedra, a talented local artist in Gainesville. No one wasted any time getting out on the dance floor and showing off their best dance moves. ​

With all that dancing, our guests worked up an appetite. Omi’s Elegant Catering was generous enough to donate a variety of delicious food to our event. Our guests couldn’t get enough of the plantains, chicken, rice, coconut shrimp and more! ​

While taking a break from dancing and eating, guests had a chance to bid on our silent auction items. All of the silent auction items were graciously donated to us by generous individuals and local businesses. Auction items ranged from gift baskets, to gift certificates, to admission tickets and specialized items. Salsa Mundial donated two group class certificates, Zen Vibe Yoga donated an in-home private yoga session, St. George Inn & Suites donated a two-night stay, the Lowry Park Zoo donated two admission tickets, and the Curtis M. Phillips Center for Performing Arts donated tickets to the Nut Cracker, just to name a few! ​

We have our incredible event manager, Sonia Herrera, to thank for another amazing year of Dance for Good!
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“All members of Children Beyond Our Borders worked together to make this event happen, even our members in Orlando,” Sonia said. “I’m super happy with how everything turned out. I think we had a really great turnout and everyone had a lot of fun.”

This event also would not have been possible without our wonderful development director, Valentina Betancur.
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When asked about the event Valentina said, “Events in general are usually pretty hectic the day of and a lot of planning needs to go into them prior to the event date, so my development team really had to come together to make sure that the event turned out well. I have to say that it really came together in the end because everything looked amazing! My favorite part of the whole thing was the silent auction because we received a lot of cool donations for this event and it looked really nice when we set it up. Also, the food was absolutely delicious and I think our guests really appreciated it. Another thing that I absolutely loved to see was that everyone was having a really great time. Overall, it was a pretty tiring experience but it came together amazingly and I'm really happy that we were able to raise so much money for our local programs!”

Dance for Good was a huge success thanks to all of our donors, volunteers, and supporters. We could not have made the night such a success without the help from you all. Thank you to our donors who donated all of our amazing auction and raffle items. Thank you to all of our volunteers who donated their time and effort to ensure that the night ran smoothly. Thank you to all our supporters who bought tickets to the event and joined in on all the fun. ​

We cannot wait to see you all again next year for our fourth annual Dance for Good event!