News/Photos (2022)

17th December 2022 - Christmas Supper Party at Laverstock Village Hall

We held our Christmas party/supper night at Laverstock with dancing to both country and Christmas music, had a multi-choice quiz and ate Christmas supper together.  Despite the particularly cold weather, we all enjoyed ourselves.  The raffle raised £80 for our 2022 charity, Parkinsons UK (Salisbury Branch).  We have made up the funds so that we are able to donate £1300 to the local branch.  Arrangements to make the donation will be made shortly.  See the charity page for more news on this as it happens.  Mulepackers were asked to nominate a charity or fund to support in 2023 and Margaret's name was pulled out.  She has chosen the Community Farm at Laverstock. 

Thank you, as always, to those who came early to help set out chairs, the food etc. and the team who washed and dried up, put furniture away and swept up.  We really are lucky to have such good support.  See photos below ...

26th November 2022 - Social Dance at Alderbury Village Hall, Chris Harris

After worrying that quite a few of our regular supporters were away on line dancing weekends which coincided with this dance, you all pulled out the stops and we had 65 there.  Thank you.  Chris Harris played two good sets of varied country music and looked great set against our new backdrop of stable doors and horses.  See the pictures below.  The raffle raised £150+ which is being donated to our charity, Parkinsons UK (Salisbury) and we will be able to top the amount up at the end of the year to make our annual charity donation. Thank you for being so generous and also for donations of raffle prices.   Thanks to Marg and Kay for doing the raffle and sitting at the door to greet people.Thanks too  to our early helpers; Fred & Silv, Janice & Pete, Ray, Rob & Selena, Christian who set out all the tables, chairs, the stage etc.  Thanks too to all those who helped at the end when we were packing up and loading cars in the pouring rain. 

Our next two socials are our in-house Christmas dinner party, then New Year's Eve, after which we may think about doing a daytime tea dance as we are aware of dark nights, driving etc. which impact several people.  Several photos below ...

22nd October 2022 - Social Dance at Alderbury Village Hall, Gary Leonard

We were due to have Chris James singing for us at this social, but he has been unwell and our agency found us another singer at the last minute, Gary Leonard.  He did not disappoint and gave us very varied sets with loads of songs we dance to including: Nickajack, Til the Neon's Gone, Til You Can't, Into the Dark Night, Wishful Thinking, Caught in the Act, Missing, Inspiration, even the old Gypsy Queen!  A great voice and a great evening.  We were joined by friends from Western Wranglers, Two of a Kind from Netley and visitors from Warwick.  Our raffle raised £117 which we will make up to £150 to donate to our charity, Parkinsons UK, Salisbury branch.

Mike finished the evening with Best of Friends, and Gary followed this with the Trilogy.

Thank you to all the early arrivers, Fred, Pete, Christian, Rob & Selena who helped us to put our tables, flags etc. and again at the end, for all those who stayed and helped pack and clean up.  It is very much appreciated.  We could not manage without this help.

Below are some pictures of the evening and a youtube clip of the barn dance etc.

15th October 2022 - West Dean Line Dancing Evening

West Dean Social Club asked Mulepackers if we would host an evening of Line Dancing at King George's Hall, West Dean on Saturday 15th October.  Marg, Kay, Ray, Chris W, Shirley and Sue P came along to help along with a few other Mulepackers.  We taught several easy dances including the Charleston, Easy Come Easy Go, Coastin, Grundy Gallop, Cotton Eyed Joe, Cowboy Strut to name but a few.  Almost everyone got up to dance, even after a western supper of bangers and beans.  Thanks to everyone who helped us.  So many people said they had had the best evening ever and we will be receiving a donation to our charity, Parkinson's Association, in due course.

27th August 2022 - Social Dance at Alderbury Village Hall with Dave Montana

We held a social charity dance at Alderbury Village Hall on 27th August, our first time of using this venue.  In spite of holidays and illness, we had 50+ people there including our friends from Netley Marsh and the Southampton area.

Dave Montana sang some of our recent titles including Nickajack, You Can Hear a Heartbeat, Messed Up in Memphis and Til You Can't with Mike DJ-ing inbetween his slots.  Dave gave us a lovely evening.  Mike rounded up the evening with Best of Friends followed by Dave singing the Trilogy for us.

Big thanks to Janice & Pete, Rob, Christian, Ray; all those who helped us set up and clear up and thanks too to Kay and Steph for handling the raffle.

The raffle alone raised £116 and we were able to top this up to almost £200 for  the charity (Parkinsons UK - Salisbury Branch) from proceeds after costs taken.  Photos and clip below ...

7th August 2022

We held a taster Partner Dance Session at Laverstock Village Hall on Sunday afternoon, 7th August 22.  The hall was full and we had a great time going over the Barn Dace, Glengarry Shuffle, We Oughta Know, Louisiana Blues and Best of Friends.  Several people now joining us for our partner class which takes place on Thursday evenings at Laverstock Village Hall.

July 2022

As a result of some difficulties and for safety reasons, we have now moved our Western Partner class from Porton Hall to Laverstock Village Hall and have rescheduled it for Thursday evenings.  We are also doing the line dancing class at this venue preceding this - all welcome.

To manage this, we have moved our Thursday afternoon class to Monday afternoon at Laverstock with the same format of two different level classes.

Tuesday evening at Grimstead stays the same.

We appreciate that nobody likes change, and for some it is a little further to travel, but hope we can all settle into our new timetable and appreciate the welcome the Laverstock committee have extended to us.  Thank you for the support over this period.

Saturday 11th June 2022

Charity Social Dance at St. Martin's School with Singer, RJ Montana

We tried out St. Martin's School hall last night for our very first social dance in a very long time.  We had 48 in attendance and plenty of room for line and partner dancing, so the hall was a good success. 

This dance was a charity dance with all funds raised payng off the balance of the Mulepackers defibrillator.  We were very lucky to have our own RJ Montana (Rob) singing for us and he did a fabulous job putting us through our paces with "Live Laugh Love", "Lay Low", "This and That", "You Can Hear a Heartbreak", "Things", "Wishful Thinking", "Til You Can't", "Happy Anywhere", "Messed Up in Memphis", "First Fool in Line" to name but a few.  Mike kept us dancing inbetween with his DJ-ing and rounded the evening off with "Best of Friends" and "The Trilogy".  He was very touched to see so many people taking part in these.

We had a fantastic spread of food - thanks to you all for making such an effort.  Kay made chocolate stetsons as a surprise which were amazing and some had gone to the effort to make gluten free food for Mike which was so much appreciated - thank you.

We welcomed a few friends from Phoenix and Netley Marsh - those supporting RJ Montana on stage and it made for a lovely sociable evening.  We were cautious on numbers this time as we were testing the size of the hall.

Our thanks of course to those who came early and moved gym equipment, set up tables etc., Nick, Fred, Silv, Jan, Pete, Rob & Selena to name just some and for the massive team clear up afterwards.

Thanks to Marg for doing the raffle which alone made £127.  Thanks too to those who brought raffle prizes.

After costs for the hall and a small thank you to Rob (who so kindly offered to do this dance for us for charity), we raised a total with raffle takings included of £348.00.  There was £200 outstanding on the defibrillator cost, so it is lovely to be able to report that the defibrillator is now paid off and we have £148 in hand to start out new charity off.

We will shortly pick a charity from the nominations you make in the next week or so.

THANK YOU EVERYONE FOR MAKING IT A LOVELY EVENING.  We are so grateful. Mel and Mike. (see photo gallery and shortly youtube clip below) ...

Friday 3rd June 2022 - Demonstration at Avonbourne Care Centre, Sarum

To mark the Queen's 70th Jubilee holiday, we did a demonstration of dancing at Avonbourne Residential Care Home where Mel's Dad (aged 95) now lives.  We were very hot, but survived with only one resident falling asleep on us.  Pictured is Mel's Dad in the middle who had a little dance with us (well supported on both arms!). Thank you everyone for making him very happy.  I really appreciate that. xx

2.6.22 Jubilee Tea Party

To mark the Queen's Jubilee, we combined the two sessions today and also did some dancing to some old Musical Hall classics such as "I've Got a Lovely Bunch of Coconuts".  The Queen herself turned up with her matching stetson and presided over our tea and cakes!

Again, thank you Mulepackers for being a wonderful team with all the clearing up after the event - it always amazes me and we are very grateful.  Thanks too for all the encouragement and kindness you show to our newcomers leading them through those first dances we all remember learning.  For some today, it was the first time they had seen a mixed level group.  Below are some photos and if you have any, please send them on and we will include them.

In 2022, Mulepackers are fund raising for their own defibrillator to take to clubs and social dances.  Mike and Mel decided to fund a defibrillator in advance as we are so aware of how critical those first few minutes are in potentially saving a life.  Although we know the location of nearest AEDs to the halls we use, every minute spent in fetching is reduces the chance of survival by 10%.  Mulepackers have had some sadness in this past year or so and it has become even more meaningful for us to do everything we can to boost chances of being able to help in the event of someone needing it.  Steph found an article on a London charity "London Hearts" who give small grants to the community to buy defibs, so we applied and were given £300 towards the cost.    This meant we paid £752 towards this one.  Once our fund raising has reached this amount, we will ask you to choose a new charity to support.

Below is a link to the training film on how to use the defib, but rest assured Mike and Mel are up to date first aiders and have been trained in CPR and managing the scene of any critical incident.  You can either copy and paste this URL into your browser and you will see their original vimeo training clip, or you can watch a filmed copy of it on youtube below.

https://vimeo.com/557677120/e7524918c5