When Walter Meneses started dancing salsa professionally already as an adult more than 20 years ago, he began to see positive changes in his life. He was healthier, with more energy, and his attitude towards life changed completely for the best.

Throughout the years, he started thinking how his life would have been so different if he had started dancing since he was a little boy. Furthermore, he began to wonder how dance could impact the lives of so many low-income families’ children in San Diego.

That’s when in 2006 he decided to create Dancing After School, a program that provides free after-school dance and art programs to children throughout San Diego County.

“If dance made that positive impact in my life as an adult, I could only imagine all the good things, all the benefits that children would gain through dancing,” Meneses said. “I wanted to share my love of dancing, because dancing changed my life for the better.”

Since 2006, Dancing After School has provided free classes to more than 3,000 children in 28 San Diego County schools.

Now, Meneses, one of the most active salsa promoters in San Diego, is expanding his vision and inviting the community at large to help make dance available to children in as many schools in San Diego as possible.

Dancing After School, which is registered as a 501c3 non-profit organization, is changing the way it raises funds for its programs.

Before, the organization depended on big businesses and organizations’ large donations to provide its free services to schools.

When the economy began to affect the amount those businesses and organizations were donating, Dancing After School had to decrease the number of classes it was offering, said operations director Jeanette Meneses.

“We had to depend on large donations from big donors in order to survive,” she said. “It was very limiting.”
The Meneses are now inviting the community to be donors as part of Dancing After School’s just-launched You + $2 + 2 Friends campaign, in which you donate $2 a month and encourage two friends to do the same.

“$2 is less than what one spends in a cup of coffee, and those $2 can make a huge difference in the lives of children,” Walter Meneses said.

Meneses said he hopes this new fundraising method, which they are calling the Donation Network DAS, will help the organization have a more flexible and reliable budget while not having to depend in big donors, although he said they will continue to apply to arts grants.

Meneses’ goal is to raise $300,000 through this campaign by the end of the year. Dance classes will start with the new school year, in September. He said that, in average, a 10-week program costs the organization about $1,400. He added that around 88 percent of expenses go to cover instructors’ salaries.

One of the advantages to donating $2 or more is that donors can recommend at the time they make their donation what school they want to be included in the program. If many donors recommend the same school, it is very likely that school will benefit from the dance lessons, Jeanette Meneses said.

She added that Dancing After School will begin promoting the donation program in schools throughout the county.
Among the benefits that children receive through the Dancing After School program, are a reduction in obesity and an increase in self-esteem, Walter Meneses said.

“I think people will see the vision of our program and will join us,” he said. “Our children deserve to have dance in their lives.”

To learn more about Dancing After School and to make a donation, please visit www.dancingafterschool.org.