Dance to Rock and Soul with the Odd Fellows for the Community Giving Fund

Charles Dalton cuts loose at the latest Odd Fellows Dance. There will be a dance on Wednesday July 4 to benefit the Community Giving Fund.

Wednesday, July 4 from 8:30 p.m. to 12:30 p.m.

By Margie Doyle

The Orcas Odd Fellows (International Order of Odd Fellows or IOOF) are having a big Rock and Soul fundraiser dance to help raise money for their Community Giving Fund.

DJs for the J July 4 dance are veterans Jay Kimball and Bruce Pavitt and newbie Mark Padbury. Beginning at 8:30 p.m., each DJ will play from their list of rock and soul classics from the 60s and 70s. The music will be accompanied by video clips from events such as Woodstock, Concert for Bangladesh, Soul Train, Concert for George and surfing videos. The set lists of 60s and 70s popular music will bring flashbacks of “Oh yeah! I remember that!” Odd Fellows General Manager Kimball.

The Rock and Soul Dance follows the recent “Funk and Soul” dance, and the annual Halloween Dance, and the Valentine dance, which coincides with the celebration of Bob Marley’s birthday by playing reggae music. In addition, the Odd Fellows hold a woodpile raffle in the fall to benefit the Community Giving Fund.

The fund helps provide scholarships to graduating high school students  —  those who have a community-centered spirit and are making a difference, says Odd Fellows Hall Manager Jay  Kimball.  This month, they gave out $4,500 in scholarship awards to three seniors.

The “Odds” Community Giving Fund also helps  send students such as Leah Cardinell, Jacquleyn Zier, Cameron Smart, Iris Parker Pavitt and Makayla Forster to the United Nations Summit on Sustainability, organized locally by Forster. They sponsored a student to accompany Owen Cheevers and Whitney on Common Vision’s 7th annual all-volunteer “Plant a Tree” bus tour among public schools in California in 2011. Closer to home, a Community Giving Award also helped send Iris Parker Pavitt to a Farm to Cafeteria Conference where she represented the Orcas Farm to Cafeteria Committee.

Kimball says, “Young people are where a lot of the action is for the future. They’re energetic and positive and can do in a heartbeat what older folks are more jaded, less energetic. We like to see people excited about sustainable experiences.

“Every great invention comes from someone who didn’t know it was impossible, who was  willing to take the risk; that’s where impossible things are done.”

The dance is on Wednesday, the 4th of July, at 8:30 pm.  Admission is $10, at the door. A special feature of the evening will be watching Eastsound fireworks at nightfall, around 10 p.m., from the deck and patio of the Odd Fellows Hall on Haven Road.