About the Wischemann Hall Building Fund

Wischemann Hall is owned and operated by the Saucy Squares Dance Club, Inc., a 501(c)(3) non-profit corporation.  The land that Wischemann Hall is built on is leased from the City of Sebastopol.  As part of our lease agreement with the City, we are obliged make the Hall ADA-compliant.  In addition, there are other deferred maintenance that needs to be done.

The money donated during the Celebration of Dance weekend will be used to fund these projects:

• ADA interior work (bathroom upgrades)
• ADA exterior work (ramp and parking lot upgrades)
• deferred maintenance for the Hall (pest and dry-rot repair under the building, electrical repair, painting and eventually a new roof)

The interior bathroom upgrade will most likely cost somewhere between $25,000 to $30,000.  This cost factors in volunteers doing what can be done without delaying the project or causing more work.  The cost also may be less due to a club member donating many of the fixtures and materials.

The exterior work (replacing the side door, rebuilding the ramp to meet ADA specs and installing a handicap space) has not been bid on yet, but we believe that it will cost us somewhere in the range of $50,000+.

We have mostly raised the funds for the interior work, and are signing a contract for the work to be done tonight.  We hope to get it started in the coming few months.  However, this project will bring the club’s treasury down to zero, and we hope to be able to replenish it to a much smaller degree with our fundraising.

This fundraising weekend’s goal is to raise the $50,000 needed for the exterior work.  If somehow we are lucky enough to raise more than that, we would use it to do the deferred maintenance, which could cost an additional $25,000 (but isn’t as urgent as the ADA work).

Currently, we have both a Fundraising Committee (whose job will be to look for ways to raise the money necessary to do the work), and a Buildout Committee, who will be working to develop an estimate of the cost, and then to orchestrate the hiring of contractors and the use of volunteers to get the job done as cheaply as possible.  Right now, estimates are ranging from between $50,000 to $100,000.

If you would like to donate to this effort, and the ongoing effort to keep Wischemann Hall open, you can use the Paypal Donate button below, or you can send a check made out to “Saucy Squares Dance Club, Inc.” to

Saucy Squares Dance Club, Inc.
465 Morris Street
Sebatopol, CA  95472

Remember, all donations are tax deductible!

For your convenience, you can pay your rental fee and security deposit online here. Select the number of hours you are applying to rent the Hall using the drop-down, and then click on “Add to Cart”.

Select Number of Hours Renting

4 hours $350.00 4.5 hours $362.50 5 hours $375.00 5.5 hours $387.50 6 hours $400.00 6.5 hours $412.50 7 hours $425.00 7.5 hours $437.50 8 hours $450.00 8.5 hours $462.50

 

The Spinners host an advanced class (A-1 & A-2) each September, beginning the first Sunday following Labor Day, from 5:15 – 7 pm. The class is open to all qualified Plus Level club dancers.

Our A-2 workshop runs from 7 – 8:45. The Spinners maintain a strong A-2 level, dancing all positions and extended applications of all calls. When they dance elsewhere, our dancers are always well prepared!

We workshop C-1 (Challenge level) from 9 – 10:30, exploring the outer limits: dancing with Phantoms, Magic Columns, Offset Parallelograms, Interlocked Triangles, Concentric formations…. the whole catastrophe!

For more information about the Spinners, see their page (CLUBS/ Sundays) on Steve’s website: www.steveminkin.com

In addition to calling Modern Western Square Dancing for these five clubs, I also regularly teach and call traditional squares and reels, cue round dances, and teach and lead line dances, circle mixers, children’s dances and more.

My wife and I began taking square dance lessons with the Saucy Squares in September, 1980, as part of the very first beginners class to start in the newly built hall! I was immediately engaged and energized by modern square dancing’s unique “thinking on your feet” feature, and I loved the variety of the music, the flow of the dance, the socializing…

A couple of months later, when the caller taught the move All 8 Circulate, I realized that the choreography of the modern square dance was chess-like in its elegant geometries, and I threw myself into the activity. I made my calling debut at a Saucy Squares amateur night during that winter and — despite being so nervous that I needed help taking the needle off the record — got such a positive response that the activity kind of “claimed” me at that point. By spring, before my own graduation from beginners class, I had a club of my own (The Windsor Whirlers) and had begun apprenticing to Dave Wischemann, who was then the club caller for the Saucy Squares.

Two years later I went through callers school with the late, great Bill Peters, one of the major figures in shaping the modern square dance. Many years later, Bill and I would reconnect through an internet jazz discussion board, and grew to become personal friends.

I am a member of Callerlab, the International Association of Square Dance Callers, and served for several years as chairman of Callerlab’s Advanced Quarterly Selection Committee, which oversaw the screening of new experimental calls. I began calling full-time in 1987, and have called hoedowns throughout the state, as well as festivals in Maui, Napa, Lakeport, and elsewhere in the west.

Unlike most callers, I have focused heavily on working in the general (non-square dance) community and in the schools. I call many benefits and fundraisers (including the Healdsburg Food Pantry, Napa Valley Opera House, and Sonoma Academy), birthday parties, parent-child dances (including both the Sonoma and Marin County YMCAs), camps (Westminster Woods, Emandal, and the San Francisco Girls Chorus Summer Camp have all been steady clients for decades), church dances, weddings (square dancing is a terrific hands-on icebreaker for families and friends who have never met), company parties, and bar-b-ques by the dozens.

Working with children is one of my specialties and delights, and no caller anywhere has a more extensive program of calling in the schools. I work with all ages, from kindergarten on up. The energy level is always high, and there is nothing quite like starting off your day by leading 60 5-year-olds through a Hokey Pokey — “That’s what it’s all about!”

I am almost always working somewhere that feels like a party. I am often among old friends who have danced with me for decades — twice a week, twice a month, once a year. Thanks to beginners classes and weekend party dances, I meet an endless parade of interesting strangers, some of whom grow to become friends. And, at all these events, I teach and sing and chant, and serve as a catalyst to bring to life the ancient and joyous magic of community dancing, in its most contemporary and exciting incarnation. Remarkably, for this the dancers pay me, share with me their laughter and their food, and thank me at the end of the dance for helping them to have such a good time. How could I not love what I do?!

For more information about my programs and schedule, see my webpage: www.steveminkin.com

Click  here to download a printable schedule of classes for the Winter of 2012 (PDF).

Clare Najarian has taught Creative and Modern Dance in public schools and private classes in Sonoma County for over 25 years.  She believes that the world of dance and movement offers a unique social and individual experience that uses the content of life as a springboard for connection, learning and understanding.  She has a background in Modern & Creative Dance, Dance Education and Dance Therapy.

Online One-Time Rental Application Form

Wischemann Hall Rental Rules (PDF)

Wischemann Hall Rental Cleanup Checklist (PDF)

Online Recurring Rental Application Form

Steve Minkin’s Website

Redwood Rainbows