By Jack Bowen

Performing for the school during SRT, Ms. Faulstich and Patrick Pendexter help raise money for the Neighborhood Center. Photo by: Jack Bowen

 

Many students may be familiar with the television show Dancing with the Stars.  On February 5, 2011, Plymouth High School’s theater department teacher Ms. Faulstich will be competing in the Neighborhood Center’s annual Dancing with the Stars fund-raiser.

Since late October, Ms. Faulstich has been meeting weekly with her partner Patrick Pendexter, a professional dancer from Lifeplex, to practice her dance routine.  To start,  Ms. Faulstich must pick a song and a dance.  She says “Patrick is teaching me East Coast Swing Dancing.”  The two chose to dance to a song by the artist Queen called “Crazy Little Thing Called Love.”  “The dance has a crazy fast tempo,” Ms. Faulstich explains, “it is a 2-3-3 beat, instead of a normal 8-count beat, and it thoroughly confused me at first.”   With patience and encouragement from her partner, Ms. Faulstitch has continued to learn her dance.  “By no means is it perfect yet,”  Ms. Faulstich describes her progress, “but at least I only step on his foot about once a night now, instead of 15 times in one night.”  Now that the date is getting closer, Ms. Faulstich says that they are meeting a few times a week.

A key point of this Dancing with the Stars competition is to raise money for the Neighborhood Center.  Ms. Faulstich says, “When I was first asked to participate in this fund raiser, I was made fully aware that my goal was to raise at least one thousand dollars.”  This has gotten Ms. Faulstich and her students thinking of some fun ways to raise money for the Neighborhood Center.  During the past week or so, you may have seen students near Ms. Faulstich’s office singing and/or playing the guitar while holding a plastic tub for donations during passing periods.  Ms. Faulstich states, “As we brainstorm other ways to raise funds, I wonder if I should do the whole pie-in-the-face thing that didn’t go so well for me in December.”  Many students seem just as excited about this as Ms. Faulstich is.  Another fund raising idea that students have asked her to do is to wear her hair down for money because she always wears it up.  Ms. Faulstich says “Now that just seems crazy!?”

One day that Ms. Faulstich hopes to raise a lot of money is on January 20th.  “This is the day that I will dance on stage during SRT,” she says, “and any student that wishes to come and see me dance can do so just by paying one dollar to get in.”  This should be a fun experience to watch Ms. Faulstich dance.  

Ms. Faulstich is hoping that the school will be as excited as she is to be a part of this fund-raiser.  She says “The Neighborhood Center makes some pretty amazing things happen for people who really need help.  The least I can do is try to raise a thousand dollars.”