IGNACIO – Dancing Spirit Community Arts Center, a nonprofit organization, filled bowls and hearts with warm soup and affectionate greetings last week for a fundraising opportunity during Ignacio’s annual Taste of Christmas celebration Friday.
After watching Santa fly into town via helicopter, and then waiting on Goddard Avenue to spot him on the back of a fire engine at the end of the parade, residents made their way over to the ELHI Community Center to warm up. Once inside, they headed to the cafeteria, originally part of the old elementary school, where several pots of soup and freshly baked bread were awaiting them.
The get-together, complete with the musical stylings of Ignacio guitarist Mike Humiston, was part of the Fill Your Bowl fundraiser, hosted by the Dancing Spirit Community Arts Center. For 13 years, Dancing Spirit has hosted the soup fundraiser, where Ignacio residents bring their homemade soups and sell them by the bowlful. Also for sale were the variety of pottery bowls, clay lanterns, wooden kitchenware and bird figurines made by teachers and students as part of the fundraiser.
In the past, proceeds have gone toward paying for new pottery kilns and other necessities for the art classes the center provides for the community. The fees raised this year, however, are going toward the new building Dancing Spirit plans to construct as soon as it gets permits.
“It’s been a long, long process,” said Dancing Spirit’s founder and executive director, Kasey Correia.
Moving into its own building is something employees and volunteers of Dancing Spirit have wanted for many years. Though the ELHI building has helped the organization grow as a community center, it still must share the space with other organizations, including the Ignite Gymnastics group.
Anthony Box, president of the Dancing Spirit’s board of directors, said in a previous interview with The Durango Herald that ELHI’s lack of visibility on Goddard Avenue is a problem. The community center is hidden behind other buildings along the main thoroughfare, making it harder for people to find Dancing Spirit.
“People don’t know we’re there,” Box said.
The new building will be visible on Goddard Avenue and will have everything Dancing Spirit needs moving forward. A groundbreaking ceremony for the new building was held in April, two lots purchased with grant funding from a private donor and the Southwest Colorado Community Foundation. The nonprofit is now waiting for the construction of the building to commence.
“We have a commitment to the community and the creative arts. We get people to engage in where their gifts are,” said Correia, who also teaches pottery and art classes to Dancing Spirit’s youngest members. “We’re all so excited about the new building, so excited to finally have our own space.”
molsen@durangoherald.com
