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Lorraine B puts on her dancing shoes for charity

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SHE hasn’t stepped onto the stage yet but Lorraine Battersby is already a ’Champion dancer. Lorraine will be representing The Clare Champion in this November’s Banner Jigs and Reels charity event.
More used to playing the fiddle than putting on her dancing shoes, the ’Champion sub-editor is looking forward to getting up on the Glór stage to help raise much-needed funds for the Samaritans in Clare.
Banner Jigs and Reels is organised by the Lions Club of Ennis, with this year’s event taking place on November 4 and 5 at 8pm. Over the last three years, more than €100,000 has been raised for local charities through Banner Jigs and Reels.
Lorraine joins a host of well-known local faces in learning to Irish dance and performing in front of a live audience to raise funds for charity.
“It’s ironic because a lot of my good friends are very good dancers and I’m usually the one sitting down and looking on but this time it’ll be the other way around,” she smiled.
Lorraine explained why she will be dancing for the Samaritans. “When it came to deciding which charity to raise money for it was very difficult to narrow down because there are so many worthy charities in Clare. However, from discussing it with the editor here, we decided on the Samaritans. Working in a newspaper, we are very aware that there has been a lot of hardship in the county, jobs gone and people are struggling and facing hard times. There is a real need out there for organisations like the Samaritans, who are operating a 24/7 service and are just a phone call away.
“They are there to provide support and a non-judgemental listening ear. For them it really doesn’t matter how big or small the problem is and they don’t have to know who you are. It’s an anonymous and purely confidential service and we felt that it is a really good charity to support. From my own talks with them in recent weeks, one of the things that really impressed me is that it is run by volunteers. It’s their goodness that is running this organisation but, like everything, they need funds to cover their costs and they need publicity to get the message out there that they are there to provide help and support.”
For the event, Lorraine has been paired up with Luis Sanchez, a dancer all the way from Guadalajara in Mexico, who is currently studying music and dance in UL.
“He is concentrating on Irish dance in his studies and it’s just so amazing to think that such is the reach of our culture that it has touched people as far away as Mexico. He’s a fantastic dancer and he is really encouraging, travelling in from Limerick every week to put me through my paces,” she said.
While her training has been going well, it hasn’t been without incident. “The first one didn’t go so well because during that, I had a minor accident and fell over and hurt my hand. But that’s healing now and as people keep telling me, I don’t need my hands to dance. Hopefully, I’ve got all my major injuries out of the way,” she laughed.
Explaining why she decided to put herself forward for the charity event, she said, “When it was first suggested in the office, I thought that it sounded great fun. I was interested in the cultural aspect of it initially, that maybe I might learn a step or two. Even though I can’t dance, I thought it would be great to be able to give something back and help out a worthy charity.”
Lorraine admits that she isn’t the best dancer. “I can’t dance. I did have great visions of leading Riverdance after this but I don’t think that’s going to happen at this stage. I did step dancing as a kid but I retired aged eight. This is the first time in a long time that I’ll be putting on any kind of dancing shoes and the fact that I’ll be doing it in front of 1,000 people over two nights in Glór is certainly challenging but it’s definitely worthwhile for the cause.”
Lorraine is now urging people to come out and show their support in Glór. “This is really about supporting the Samaritans more than anything. I’d love if people came along to the shows because I think it will all be down to vocal support on the night and whoever gets the biggest shouts. Tickets will be available from Glór and also people can support the event by sponsoring me. The Samaritans have sponsorship cards and I have them also. Anybody who wants to support can drop money into reception here at The Clare Champion and I’ll be more than happy to put it on a sponsorship card or they can drop off money to the Samaritans on the Kilrush Road.”
Tickets for the event are available from Glór box office. The confidential Samaritans phone line is 1850 609090 or email them at jo@samaritans.org.

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