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Teen ambassadors help tutus travel around the world

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Katelyn Spohn and Rebekah Brodsky,both 15, are global ambassadors of good-will.

Their mission is not about interna-tional diplomatic relations. And they’renot seasoned politicians. Rather, theyare teens on a mission to help bring thegift of dance to children in need aroundthe world.

Katelyn, of Plantation, and Rebekah,of Coral Springs, are dancers at EncoreDance Theatre in Sunrise. They are teenambassadors for Traveling Tutus, anorganization whose purpose is to “col-lect and deliver dance costumes andattire to children all around the world.”

Since it was founded in 2008, Trav-eling Tutus has sent dance attire to thou-sands of children in 29 different coun-tries, from Haiti to Uganda. It mainlydonates to children in orphanages, chil-dren’s homes, foster care, hospitals or toother nonprofits with a focus on childrenin developing countries.

“Our friend who’s been here since shewas like 2 or 3 always did Traveling Tu-tus, and she brought us into it,” Katelynsaid.

Rebekah said when their friend grad-uated from high school, she passed themantle to them.

Anne Brodsky, Rebekah’s mother, hasowned Encore Dance Theatre in Sunrisefor seven years. She said she is alwayslooking for ways to connect the dancestudio to give back to the community.Her attention was brought to TravelingTutus through a friend from anotherstudio who asked if she would be inter-ested in adopting the cause.

By Scott LuxorSpecial correspondent

Katelyn Spohn, left, of Plantation, and Rebekah Brodsky, of Coral Springs, are dancers at Encore Dance Theatre in Sunrise. Theyare teen ambassadors for Traveling Tutus, an organization whose purpose is to “collect and deliver dance costumes and attire tochildren all around the world.”

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“(The students) have agood feeling when they seethe pictures of childrenwearing the costumes inother countries. There’s amuch bigger picture outthere that they get exposedto,” Brodsky said. “Wewanted to pick (a cause) inthe community that we canactually get the kids in-volved in. The student am-bassadors are the onescollecting the costumes,having the bake sales anddoing the Adopt A Squareevent that they just did.”

The event was organizedby the students who createda poster with differentamounts of money writtenon square stickers. Peoplecould take a note from theposter and put that amountof money in a jar at thefront of the studio to give tothe organization.

“Traveling Tutus has areally nice support systemin place for the ambas-sadors. They’re guidedthrough the process,” Brod-sky said. “Tutus collects theclothes, then they disperseit — so we don’t really knowspecifically where our cos-tumes are but they’re inconstant communication.We know that they’re goingout to all different coun-tries.

“They’re trying to spread(the clothes) out to areasthat need it — to kids thatwant to dance, but they

don’t have the means tohave a beautiful costume.And there’s something to besaid that when you look thepart, you feel so much bet-ter. It’s really inspiring,” shesaid.

Samantha Nelson, studioambassador coordinator forTraveling Tutus, works withthe youth volunteersthroughout the country tocoordinate and supporttheir efforts. She said theprogram has increased thenumber of volunteers ten-fold since it started.

“We have over 100 am-bassadors in the programthis year. Our ambassadorsare from across America,and we have some in Cana-da and the Cayman Islands.

The program has grownexponentially in the pastfour years. We started outwith less than 10 in 2014,and now we’re at 103,”Nelson said.

“The goal of our ambas-sador program is to helpdevelop our ambassadorsinto great leaders. Ourambassador requirements,(i.e. fundraisers, costumedrives, etc.) are designed tohelp them develop problem-solving skills, strengthentheir creativity, develop astrong sense of responsibil-ity and accountability andhone their communicationskills,” she said.

“I cannot tell you howmuch these students haverisen to the challenges

before them. They haveshown incredible tenacitythroughout the past fewseasons, and we are sohappy to see them grow intogreat dance leaders,” Nel-son said.

Melanie Gibbs, based inSouth Florida, is the studiooutreach coordinator forTraveling Tutus. Althoughthe nonprofit does much ofits work around the globe, italso does outreach to com-munities in the UnitedStates where there is finan-cial need.

“I was introduced tosome very special dancersfrom Deerfield Park Ele-mentary, which is just fiveminutes from Boca DanceStudio. Deerfield Park justhappened to be a recentrecipient of Traveling Tutuscostumes so we did thenatural thing and invitedthem to perform with us atthe Leave A Legacy Show-case. It was an awesomefull-circle moment to intro-duce these two dancers tothe Boca Dance Studio kidsand see them all make thatconnection,” Gibbs said.

“Traveling Tutus makes ahuge impact internationallybut it was really cool to seetheir work being done righthere in our own backyard,”she said.

The teen ambassadors

have great things to sayabout their recentlyadopted cause.

The website for TravelingTutus shows videos andphotos of young dancers indeveloping countries prac-ticing and performing whilewearing the outfits thatwere donated through thenonprofit.

“Being able to spread(dance costumes) to otherpeople who can’t affordthem is such a great thing,”Katelyn said.

The two students aregiven specific responsibili-ties as leaders of the mis-sion within Encore Dance.They are required to put ontwo main events each yearin their roles.

Adopt A Square was onebut they needed another tofulfill their roles.

“We came up with a daycalled Tutu Tuesday. We gotall of our friends at thestudio to wear tutus todance in to spread the word.And then we donated those

tutus to the organization,”Katelyn said.

Rebekah added, “Then ifthey wanted to bring in anycostumes that day, theycould donate those as well.It’s like a day we created fordonations.”

The teen ambassadorscan’t say enough about howgratifying it is to give backand to know that their ef-forts help other childrenaround the world to havethe basic attire that alldancers need to perform.

“With the time we’vebeen involved, it’s beenreally great. We’ve had tolearn how to make fundrais-ers and events. Being in-volved with Tutu Tuesdaysand giving back — it wasfun,” Rebekah said.

“I totally suggest (otherkids) get involved. It’s agreat way to give back toyour community and beinvolved with somethingcool and different. It’ssomething that’s for every-one.”

Katelyn Spohn, right, of Plantation, and Rebekah Brodsky, of Coral Springs, practicein their ballet class at Encore Dance Theatre in Sunrise. They are teen ambassadorsfor Traveling Tutus.

SCOTT LUXOR/CORRESPONDENT

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Traveling Tutu dancing attire recipient in Guatemala. TRAVELINGTUTUS.ORG/COURTESY

Traveling Tutu dancing attire recipients in Haiti. TRAVELINGTUTUS.ORG/COURTESY