So about 40 helpers headed to snowy Horseshoe Resort just past Barrie on Saturday. We met at 6pm at the Fireside Lounge for some hot chocolate and catching up. It was great to see teams of helpers arriving together – some that didn’t know each other but by the end of the night were instant friends.

Once everyone arrived we headed to the snow tubing hill. It is always a little scary the first time and there were some nervous helpers looking a little green on the first run but very soon everyone was an expert and the instead of telling the attendant to be gentle we were begging for fast, mega-spinning rides. Because the hill was so icy we were going faster then last time and at times we thought we may go through the final barrier but we always stopped just in time.

At 9pm everyone changed and met at Silks Dining Room which was their fine dining restaurant for a 3 course meal. It was a great meal with lots of conversation and laughter.

At the end of the meal the best part of the evening began. We moved to the lounge where last year’s entertainer was there singing some great oldies. He remembered our group and stuck around for an extra hour playing songs for us. We danced salsa, merengue and cha cha to his oldies which was a lot of fun and ad libbed the other songs with lots of cheesy fun dance moves and even the electric slide!

John Radke, one of our very talented helpers, even joined the entertainer for a song and he was amazing!

This was by far the best helper outing. I know I always say that but it gets better and better! Horseshoe may well be an annual event now. Visit the “events” page for the photos.

Thank you to all the helpers for an amazing night but, more importantly, all that you do to make Toronto Dance Salsa such a fun and successful organization. Lots of love and hugs to you all!!

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This is the second helper party at our place and I think it is going to become tradition to move all our furniture, blast the salsa music and dance the night away. The Dance-All-Night Award would probably go to John Radke and Emely Tapar – I don’t think I saw them stop dancing which is a good thing because the food and dessert tables were overflowing.

We also surprised Alfred for his 35th birthday. Nina dropped off a huge cake and decorations the day before and all the helpers hid upstairs and shocked poor Alfred. It was Alfred’ first surprise party and hopefully we didn’t scar him for life. Happy birthday Alfred!

Our next helper get-together is on March 15th. I am treating all the helpers to a snowtubing and dinner experience at Horseshoe Resort. Should be a blast – photos to come!

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We met at Bevermead Beach in the Kawartha’s – it is about 1.15hrs drive from Toronto. To my surprise people were early and assisted us in setting up the volleyball net on the beach. By 11:30am over 25 helpers were in attendance playing some seriously competitive beach volleyball, frisbee, kiteflying, and relaxing by the water. We even had some brave souls jump in the lake for a dip.

2 hours later we jumped in our cars and made a 9 vehicle driving line to Evan’s parents Lakehouse. It is an unbelievable home right on Lake Shemong with all the toys (hot tub, boat, tubes, floating toys, etc). We had an amazing BBQ lunch there with home made hamburgers, BBQ chicken, salads and corn and then wasted no time in taking turns boat riding, trying to dunk the passengers behind us on the inflatable hotdog, dipping in the jacuzzi, swimming in the lake and much more.

By 6pm everyone gathered around the karioke machine and proceeded to sing to the oldies and John Radke took out his guitar and serenaded us with some cool tunes. Annamarie (Evan’s mother and the hostest with the mostest) made everyone shakers and we were able to sing and rattle our shakers to the music.

We followed this off by a BBQ dinner of Italian Sausages, salads and an ice cream sundae bar. During dinner we had some Toronto Dance Salsa trivia and after dinner we retired to the bunkey which is a great area overlooking the lake for some games.

There was a huge amount of laughs and it was a very exciting day. I am so happy and proud to have such an amazing group of helpers and I thank everyone for their energy, enthusiasm and participation. Photos to be posted very soon!

Final huge thanks go to Annamarie, David and Evan for making the day unforgettable.

Oh no, the pressure is on to beat this outing…what to do next???

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