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Frederick Singles put on your dancing shoes

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On Sunday, March 6, singles from the metro area will put on their boogie shoes and twist the night away. Some join in the fun to waltz or two-step, some come because they love to cha-cha and others freestyle, hoping to meet Mr. or Ms. Right – or Right Now. 

 

Since March, 1986, the Frederick Singles Dance has provided 25 years of opportunity for men and women to move their feet to the beat and maybe even fall in love. People jitterbug in from nearby counties in Maryland as well as Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Virginia and Washington, D.C.

 

Ronnie Osterman, one of the founding board members, tells how they got started. “Timothy Bacorn, (now deceased) was a very active member of the Frederick chapter of Parents Without Partners, and thought there should be something for singles to do on Sunday night.  He suggested to the board members of Parents Without Partners that we start a dance for singles on the first, third and fifth Sundays of the month.” 

 

The first dance had 87 guests and was held at the Holiday Inn on US 40. Word of mouth soon spread and the attendance quickly rose to 250 people. It wasn’t long before the organizers had to find a larger space and settled on the Sheraton just off I-270, now known as the Holiday Inn at Francis Scott Key Mall. Twenty-two years later the dance attracts 300 to 500 hopefuls per night.

 

Stories abound on individual experiences at the dance. Osterman recounted a touching story about a recent widower. “This gentleman came in one night and told us he had recently lost his wife of 35 years. He came to the dance because he wanted some companionship. Less than an hour later, he left with misty eyes, realizing he just wasn’t ready.”

 

There is one couple who met and married because of the dance. Their original intent was to get their widowed mothers out for the evening, but they wound up discovering each other. Marriage is not for everyone and 25 years later there are six bachelors who still attend on a regular basis, like they have been doing for 25 years.

 

More than “just a dance,” Frederick Singles looks for ways to give back to the community. In July, 1989, they made a generous donation to the Frederick Art Society for the mural paintings, "Angels in the Architecture." There is a brass plaque on the wall of the building commemorating this gift. Other years, Frederick Singles made donations to: Alzheimer's Association, American Cancer Society, Community Walk, Families Plus!, Frederick Community Food Bank, Frederick Sisters Cities Association, Guatemala Mission, Heartly House, Holidays in Historic Frederick, Hospice, New Market Methodist Church, Out of Darkness Suicide Prevention, Rotary Club of Carroll Creek (for the Restoration of Baker Park Band Shell) United Way of Frederick, Weinberg Center for the Arts, Inc. 

 

For more than 20 years they have been supporting education with a scholarship administered by Frederick Community College. Area high school students who are children of single parents apply for the scholarship through their Guidance Counselors. The scholarship is awarded to the student who has good grades and is the most worthy of the scholarship.

 

For more information and directions to the dance visit: http://www.fredericksingles.org “You should be dancing, yeah!” 

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