General News
28 November, 2024
Costumes donated to Uganda
Thirty years of dance concerts meant the Western Studio of Performing Arts (WSPA) had amassed an impressive archive of costumes by the time its principal, Angie White, hung up her dancing shoes last year.
By Abigail McLaughlin
Deciding how to re-purpose such a substantial backstage collection was a challenge, but Angie knew how much joy and fun it had brought to her students in Nyngan, Cobar, and Tottenham and wanted to see it doing the same to others.
With this in mind, she packaged up some of the costumes and posted them off to Budaka, Uganda, where the Nyngan community has close ties to a charity which has built a boarding school. Last week, Angie received photographs of the grinning students dressed in the tutus, skirts, and tops, as well as a thank-you message.
“I just thought of how much all our kids have, and how little they have, and what a joy it would be to them,” Angie said. “I have seen the joy those costumes brought all the kids in this region and it seemed right to see others have that fun as well.”
The Carter family of Nyngan helped found Life Charity Focus, which has educated more than 1,000 Ugandan children over the past decade.
WSPA is also donating five big boxes of costumes to a school in the Northern Territory, which has mostly Indigenous students.
“The principal is a friend of a friend, and I’m sure the students there will also get real pleasure out of them.”
