YATESVILLE — Pittston Area junior Jenna Lombardo wanted to make an impact by doing something meaningful in her life that would help others. So she held a dance program Feb. 3 at Pittston Area High School.
As a part of her National Honor Society project, Lombardo chose to marry her love of dance and her desire to raise money to help the Jordan Thomas Foundation, a national agency which provides children affected by the loss of a limb with a prosthetic replacement.
“I was looking at Instagram and different places and I saw someone who was dancing with a prosthetic leg and I thought that was really amazing,” Lombardo said. “It inspired me and I started looking for agencies that have to do with prosthetics and found the Jordan Thomas Foundation.”
Pittston Area’s National Honor Society requires its members to do a project in their junior or senior year.
“I really like dance and it inspires me,” Lombardo said about why she chose a dance program as her fundraiser.
She has been dancing for many years locally with Spotlight Dance Studio, Pittston and Power Surge Dance Troupe, Philadelphia.
Members from both Power Surge and Spotlight took part in the dancing fundraiser as did independent dancers and members of other dancing troupes.
There were a totally of 22 dance acts with an intermission halfway through the program.
Joanna McBride, owner/director of Power Surge Dance Troupe, felt it was important to be at Lombardo’s event.
“Having one of my elite members and dance captains a part of our company, when she told me she was doing this fundraiser for such a good cause, I definitely wanted our dancers to be here to perform,” McBride said. “No matter how far it was, we brought up the whole team from Philly; it’s a really good cause.”
The event master of ceremony Fabian Levy, a dance instructor at Power Surge, was happy to contribute to Lombardo’s fundraiser.
“I’ve known Jenna for a while now and when she told me she was doing this event, I was excited,” Levy said. “You don’t really find that many young kids looking to give back and work so hard in doing what she loves and, no matter how far it is, of course I’m going to be a part of it.”
Christina Searfoss, a dance instructor at Spotlight Dance Studio, was also on hand to support Lombardo and her dance troupe.
“I’m so proud of Jenna for taking on this task and finding such a unique organization to support,” Searfoss said. “Everyone is coming together today, even though everyone is in a different dance studio or different company, everyone’s coming today to help raise money.”
Searfoss hopes this won’t be the last dance event to help raise money.
Lombardo hoped to raise at least $3,000 for her effort.
