SF Photography: R-Town | Dancing With the Stars, Redlands Style!

If you are a member of the Redlands Symphony then you know what I'm talking about! Each year the Redlands Symphony holds a Gala in order to raise money which supports the growing costs of providing music education opportunities to local school children, and also to help sustain the orchestra's regular season of concerts. This Gala is their largest fundraiser of the year! The theme each year is Dancing With the Stars and they choose members of their organization to be their "celebrities" who team up with a professional dancer in the area, learn a routine, and perform it the night of the Gala and, of course, raise money! Each dancer raises money by bringing in votes. Each vote is $1, so if someone donates $25 for a particular dancer, that dancer receives 25 votes. And this year, one of the celebs asked me to shoot her head shots. So not only did I do head shots, I thought she would be a PERFECT person to start off my new blogging adventure! The R-Town segment of SF Photography. Each week I will bring you someone or some place of Redlands, that I think people would be interested in hearing about. So to pilot my first "edition" of this segment...Jackie Meyer!

SF: So have you always liked dancing?
JM: When I was a teen in the 60’s, the rage on TV was dance shows….I of course was glued to every one of them. There was one show I particularly liked called Shebang with host Kasey Kasem. On the show there were permanent dancers, one being Buddy Schwimmer. I convinced my mom that I needed to go the show so I could dance with Buddy. So off we went to KTLA. I was so excited...I couldn’t wait to dance with Buddy! Now remember, he has no idea that I existed. Well, little did I know, the permanent dancers on the show could not dance with anyone else but their partner on the show. I was crushed, but had a good time anyway. Fast forward to the late 90’s…I was working in the Attendance Office at RHS. In comes this tall, young man with his dad to check him in for the day. I asked for his name, Benji he said, Schwimmer. I looked up at him and asked his dad, are you Buddy Schwimmer? He said, yes, very cautiously. I told Buddy I was still mad after all of these years that I didn’t get to dance with him on Shebang, but he made it up to me in the office...we did a quick two step and I was happy!
SF: That's funny! I actually know Buddy and that sounds like something he would do! So Jackie, If you had the chance to dance with anyone in the world, besides Buddy since you already had that opportunity, who would it be?
JM: Derek Hough and/or John Travolta
SF: John Travolta would be on my list, too! What's your favorite type of dance?
JM: I especially like swing, cha cha, country…anything upbeat!
SF: You are such a fun person! What is the funniest thing you've ever done?
JM: Once I was on a game show and won a pile of money! Funny thing was that I had to be talked into going!
SF: Lastly, why do you think people should vote for you?
JM: Because I'm awesome….No…. because I have a passion for dancing and music. I want to raise as much money for the Redlands Symphony as I can and at $1 per vote, I think it gives many people the opportunity to contribute to the Redlands Symphony without breaking the bank. I know we all have many choices where to spend our money in fundraising efforts and I hope that it will be affordable for 10,000 people to vote for me! Just think, at $1 per vote times 10,000…that would be awesome!!
SF: I wish you the best of luck Jackie! Hoping everyone that reads this sends in a vote for you!