The Irish dance community around the country is rallying around Jane Richard, the seven-year-old budding Irish dancer who lost her leg in the Boston Marathon terror attacks and remains hospitalized in critical condition.
The tragic Richard family also laid to rest their eight-year-old son Martin, who was killed in the blasts. Mother Denise Richard was also hospitalized with a brain injury.
For the past four years Jane Richard has attended Tuesday Irish dance classes at the Clifden Academy in Milton, Massachusetts. Owner and dance instructor Eileen Dillon Dinn told the Irish Voice that Jane “lives to dance,” and schools all over the U.S. have started fundraising to provide financial assistance to the Richard family.
This Saturday, April 27, an evening of Irish music and dance will take place at the John Hancock Hall at the Bay Back Events Center, 180 Berkeley Street in Boston, at 7 p.m. The event will also feature New England solo and ceili world championship performances.
Tickets are priced at $26.20, with a limited number of VIP tickets $100. Tickets can be purchased by visiting BiddingforGood.com They must be purchased in advance.
Every penny raised will go towards the Richard Family Fund, which has raised well over $200,000 to date. Sponsors of the event include Irish Dances Teacher of New England Inc., Rutherford Shoes, Irish Dance Magazine, and John Hancock Hall at the Back Bay Event Center.
Donations can also be made to the Richard Family Fund online at the fund's website.
In New York, the Kerry Hall at 305 McLean Avenue in Yonkers will host a Dance Out for Jane event from 1-6 p.m. All musicians, singers and dancers are invited to show their support for the Richards, with 90 percent of proceeds raised going towards the family fund, and 10 percent donated to the Leukemia Foundation.
For information, contact Unateresa Gormley at 914-715-9914.
Dance schools have flooded Facebook and other sites with messages of support, both emotional and financial, for Jane and her family. Red Sox for Jane is one Facebook page created by a family asking for donations of Irish dance socks which they will die red and distribute for a donation. Wrapping Jane in Our Love is another. It aims to collect a t-shirt from Irish dance schools all over the world, and make them into a quilt.
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