Amanda Harris
The Westminster Schools, senior
Amanda Harris has not known a life without dance. With both of her grandmothers being dancers, dancing is in Amanda’s blood. She has been dancing since age 2 1/2, and has spent more than 750 hours volunteering through dance.
A passion for community service was also introduced into Amanda’s lifestyle at a young age. Ever since she was a little girl, she has kept a box in which she adds change to donate. Her family has served dinner on Thanksgiving and Christmas at the Mary Hall Freedom House for “as long as she can remember.” Amanda recognizes that “donating time and money has always been a part of my life,” as she wrote recently in a scholarship essay.
“When I am passionate about something, I cannot just sit back,” Amanda wrote.
Amanda’s passion for dance inspired her to start the organization “Wear then Share” five years ago. It helps underprivileged children become involved with dance. The program has two branches, one called Dancewear Initiative and the other called Dance Outreach Program.
Dancewear Initiative collects and donates used dancewear for children who cannot afford brand-new dancewear. Amanda is currently collecting at Dance Fashions in Roswell, The Studio of Atlanta Dance in Buckhead and Vinings, Shapes, and Dunwoody Baptist Church in Dunwoody.
Through the Dance Outreach Program, Amanda teaches dance classes in the community. For the past five years, she has taught at the Boys and Girls Club. Every week she instructs a 2-hour class for 25 children. She brings her class to Westminster to perform their spring dance concert.
As her students improve with practice, she said, she becomes a better. “When leading a class, I share a part of me with each dancer, but teaching is a mutual endeavor,” Amanda said.
She loves the feeling of seeing her students “beam, with roses in hand after performing.” Amanda believes her students teach her the meaning of “spreading the love.”
Amanda’s friends and family have been very supportive through the process of developing her organization. “Dance friends” help her teach classes and manage collection sites for Dancewear Initiative. She also has friends at school who “love helping backstage — fixing hair and last-minute costume snafus,” Amanda said.
Her family has become very involved with Wear then Share. “We spend hours sorting through dancewear, and the project has become a family effort,” Amanda said.
This holiday season, Amanda is teaching a camp at the Mary Hall Freedom House, a residential shelter for women and children. “The dancers will perform at the Christmas Celebration for all [of] the women,” she said. “I am so excited!”
What’s Next:
Although Amanda does not yet know where she is attending college, she does know that dance will remain a part of her future. “I want to join a company or a dance club and continue taking classes and performing,” she said.