!Please Help Mabel Lee

One of the reasons I love being a part of the Lindy Hop community is that it is exactly that – a community. There are over 40,000 of us spread out all over the world (according to a recent informal poll by Juan Villafañe), yet we still manage to keep a sense of closeness. People who have never met feel connected though a shared love for Lindy Hop and will help each other out when possible. We see this all the time in acts such as offering a place to stay for a visiting dancer and helping them find local places to dance.

But what I think really makes us special as a community, is that we come through for other members even when it's non-dance related. One example is the case of tap dancer, Ludovico Hombravella Suarez. He was diagnosed with a rare form of cancer and needed help with living expenses for the time he is expected to go through chemotherapy. Friends of his formed an Indiegogo campaign, which raised double of the €4,000 goal in just a couple of days.

Today there is another opportunity to help an important member of our community. At 92, Mabel Lee is one of the living legends that contributed to the jazz dance world that we all love.

 She just recently preformed at the famous Apollo theater in New York for Frankie 100 and is now in Seoul, South Korea. She traveled there to teach, and has broken her hip and shoulder. According to posts by Sharon Davis and Pamela Gaizutyte, she cannot fly home to the states until she undergoes surgery. For this to happen, her medical bills must be paid upfront, which may be as much as $30,000. The South Korean dancers have used all the funds from their event to get her medical treatment thus far, but more is still needed.

Any amount will help. Whether you can give the equivalent you would pay for a weekly social dance, a class or a weekend event, please do what you can. I'm sure that between all of us, we can come through for this woman who has already given so much to us.

For donations, please send funds by PayPal to Jandi Kim at lovelyjandi@gmail.com.

Please help spread the word, also through the Facebook event.