As you may know, Chester's band is performing at a fund raiser for Kirk Tuey on July 7th, 2006.

Kirk is a very good Swing dancer and nice guy who was in a skiing accident this past January.  He is very well known in the Los Angeles area Lindy and East Coast Swing circles.

He suffered head trauma in the accident, and went into a coma.  When he came out, he was paralyzed on his right side.  Through months of therepy and hard work and prayer, he was eventually able to regain the use of most of his right side.  As of this week, he is walking and talking and trying to dance.  That should tell you a little about the inner strength and determination in this guy.

Neither Kirk nor his family are rich, so you can imagine the hospital and therepy costs involved.

So, the fund raiser is just one of the efforts of his friends in the Swing community to try and help Kirk out.

But why?  Who is Kirk and why should anyone help him?  I'll tell you why I'm doing it.

I first met Kirk about 3 years ago, when I began dancing with Chester’s group.  Although I had been dancing West Coast Swing for a couple years, I was very new to Lindy and “East Coast” (I hate using that term, but I’ll spare you that grief for the moment). 

Chester recommended that we go to Alpine Village to do some social dancing.  I believe I was the only one from our group who showed up one night.  It was much different from what I had been accustomed to in doing Salsa, Hustle and WCS.  For one, there was the live Big Band.  The crowd was also a little older than I had been used to (even though it wasn’t that much older than me).  I didn't know anyone, didn't know how to do the dance that well, so, for the most part, I just sort of sat down and observed.

After a while, here comes this guy, smiling and introducing himself.  He said he figured I was new because he hadn’t seen me there before.  He wanted to welcome me to the Swing community, and commenced to telling me all about how great Lindy people were – much friendlier than “Saahl-sa” (He had a curiously Texan accent when he pronounced this word) people.   He then began introducing me to everyone he knew there.

Now, at that time, I knew the Swing (WC) crowd to be a fairly unfriendly (at least towards folks they don't know -- not just my opinion, but shared by many, many people I have ran into) group, so I took his assertions with a grain of salt.  But, I was impressed by his friendliness.  I was even more impressed when I saw him dance -- he was the best dancer out there, and moved with a naturalness and rhythm that I have rarely seen.

Now, if you know nothing about Kirk, or Swing, but you are a dancer, ask yourself this: Unless you are a young and attractive female, when was the last time a male dancer approached you and introduced himself in a friendly manner?  Now ask yourself futher, when was the last time you EVER saw the best male dancer in the room do something remotely similar to being friendly just to be friendly (not selling a class or promoting a spot or trying to get into your panties)?

I say all this to say that Kirk impressed me on several levels.  Not only is he nice and friendly and smart and a good dancer and a good teacher, but he is also a warm and exceptional human being.  There are very few people I have met in my life after whom I try to model myself, but Kirk is one of them.  I try my best to be humble and kind and honest and friendly.  As some of you know, I don't always make it, but I try.  And Kirk Tuey is one of the reasons for that.

And, I've gotten a lot out of trying to be a better person off the dance floor than on, I believe.  So, when I heard what had happened to Kirk and Debbie was looking for folks to help out, there was no question that I would try and do something.

So, I hope you can make it to help Kirk out.  He has been an inspiration to many, many people in this community, and we need guys like him to demonstrate through their behaviour, what being a fine dancer and person is all about.

-ron