Its hard to believe that it was just about 10 months ago that ZumbaDaddy was born. With that birth came the merger of fitness and our Relay for Life here in Bergen Beach, Mill Basin and Marine. The thought was simple the effect tremendous, an agenda of fitness and a healthy lifestyle as a means of promoting prevention and cancer awareness.
It worked! Zumba for Life, our first foray into the genre was an out of nowhere success. 419 participants gathered to set a record for the Largest Indoor Zumba Class in furtherance of fitness and our cause! From 8 to 80, male, female, young & old they all came out for our cause and had the time of their lives.
http://recordsetter.com/world-record/people-doing-the-zumba-new-york-city/22389#contentsection
We followed this success with a Zumba Flash Mob in the Key Food Mill Basin parking lot. Except for one frightened neighbor who thought there was a riot ,the early morning crowd couldn't believe their eyes and even jumped in for a beat or two.
Next came a day of fitness at PS 52 in Sheepshead Bay where our own instructor Vanessa gave Zumba lessons and a fabulous fitness, healthy lifestyle talk around to dozens of kids from kindergarten to first grade.
And then there was the Zumba inspired dance finale at Edward R Murrow's Dance Syncopation, conceived by dance instructor Roberta Raymond wherein over two hundred dancers in Relay for Life attire brought down the house in manner that would have made any Broadway theater envious.
Finally, there was Zumba at Midnight at our Relay for Life event at Bergen Field. Our Zumba instructors partied under stars through the midnight hour, grudgingly halting the festivities only after the clock had struck 1am.
Zumba provided fun and inspiration for hundreds of people leading them to learn about and then promote our cause. We have new fans, new committee members and new teams all plucked from our fitness fanatics. Our neighborhood is alive with fitness and our Relay for Life brand is everywhere. We even sponsored a Brooklyn Fights Back With Fitness Week where a number of our local gyms, dance studios, karate schools and mixed martial arts studios held their own classes for the benefit of the American Cancer Society.
People want to exercise, people want to dance, and people want to Zumba. To make it even better the ability to help others and benefit a great cause like the American Cancer Society has acted to motivate them even more.
I'm a year older, in a little better shape than last year, and I still can't dance a lick. Still, wherever I go in the neighborhood it is not uncommon to hear "hey ZumbaDaddy" or "aren't you the Zumba guy?"
I am well aware that I had put away my Zumba gear. Yet, as I reflect on my life as ZumbaDaddy I have come to realize something my buddy Peter Parker once said to me..."Along with great power, comes great responsibility"
I'm dusting off my neon, downloading some music my friend Wilson gave me and preparing to bring you Zumba for Life II. We may or may not break our own record, but we will make new friends, sweat off some holidays sweets, raise money for the American Cancer Society and create a World With More Birthdays!
I hope you will follow the adventures of ZumbaDaddy as I go back into training, meet some new instructors, & say hello to some old ones, all along the way to Zumba for Life II January 5th at the Aviator!
https://www.facebook.com/events/393368627457128/
So call your friends and family, enjoy your holidays then get ready for a New Years resolution to "Get Your Fitness On!"
ZD 10.5.13
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