To celebrate the launch of our new website and our 10th anniversary of our all inclusive dance party, I thought I would write one of the first weekly articles we will be posting.
I get asked often by people how I came up with the idea of DanceABLE now called InclusiV.
It started back in 2017, when we were fresh off the success of our 1st ever autism job fair, I had received a call from Kathryn Haggis, who at the time was working at another charity, she had reached out to simply introduce herself, the organization and wanted to offer up their support for any future events we had coming up.
A week before that, a friend of mine (Pete), sent me a video of a party at somewhere in Europe at a pub, the only difference was the event was created specifically for individuals with disabilities. I was so inspired but the video that I think it subconsciously sat in my head because a week later I received a call from another friend and former employee (Tara) who had recently secured a social activity grant but needed a trusted person to hold the grant funds. Her grant was to set up and host a series of social events and activities throughout the city at various locations. I told her I would do it on one condition, I would like her to host an event for individuals with disabilities, Tara didn’t need convincing, she was in. The only problem is, I didn’t have access to that community, and I didn’t have anything else in mind outside of knowing this was something I wanted to do.
This is where my mind goes into overdrive and starts to think. I remember this like it was yesterday as I was driving downtown to work on Kingston Road. The memory of that video, the phone call I received the day before and now this call from Tara, it must be a sign!!!
Suddenly I had this vision of doing a giant outdoor event for 1000+ people where we could host Tara’s games night, work with Kathryn and the charity she was working at, and I could do what I did for many years … throw a giant party!!!
I remember calling Kathryn with the idea and before I could finish she said “We are in!”, my next call was to a venue I have had a long standing working relationship with, I called the owner, explained to him what I wanted to do and he graciously agreed to host the event at his venue. From there my next call went to Tara to let her know we had a venue and a concept.
2 months later, DanceABLE was born!!!
And now, year 10, we introduce a new name, a new look and what is going to be an even bigger event ….
We are excited for what this year’s event is going to bring!!!!
