A group of square dancers took to the dance floor at the St. Paul the Hermit church hall in Sheenboro on Sunday to enjoy a full afternoon of live music and test out some steps that many among them have been practicing since last summer.
The event, organized by the Sheenboro Recreation Association, has become somewhat of a staple in the community over the last couple of years. RA president Jeanie Gleason said what began as an effort to get local seniors out of their homes has been successful enough that they now host it three, sometimes four times a year.
“They were doing [these dances] in Eganville and it was very successful,” Gleason said of the inspiration to start this event in 2024. “It’s nice for our seniors to get out and meet others and socialize [ . . . ] They’re either teaching, they’re helping someone, or they’re learning themselves.”
She said these days the dances draw people not only from Sheenboro, but from the Ontario side of the Ottawa Valley as well.
“We have people here from Eganville, from Cobden, from Campbell’s Bay, this is not just our community,” she said. “These are really big in Ontario, so we just kind of got in on that. A lot of those people just kind of follow the band. And then our locals also come out.”
Musicians Kathy Neville, Sherryl Fitzpatrick, and Michel Morrency, special guest Donna Gagnon and caller Eldon Ostrom kept people on the dance floor for all four hours, with the exception of the break taken for a light lunch.
Some among the Sheenboro contingent have been practicing their square dancing steps for just over a year, since community members Betty Morris and Janet Retty began holding semi-regular practices at the hall. Once in a while Ottawa Valley caller Jack Rosein joins them to teach some new dances.
“Janet and I thought we better start bringing it back because nobody is square dancing anymore, before it becomes a lost art,” Morris said.
She grew up square dancing with Sheenboro’s 4-H club, competing against clubs in Chapeau and Shawville and “all the way down the line,” as she put it, while Retty learned it when she married her husband.
“Because he was from Sheen, you see. I was thrown in,” Retty laughed.
They’ve been hosting practices at the hall every couple of weeks, and have slowly been growing the number of people coming out to learn the steps.
Retty said the practices are popular “with the 50, 60, 70, 80 group,” and that they’re hoping to also attract younger generations.
While Morris recalls square dancing in the church hall was status quo when she was growing up, she believes it lost its central role in the community when DJs became more popular.
“There wasn’t too much fiddle music coming from the disc jockey,” she joked. “So it’s nice to bring the square dancing back.”
Every dance is used as a fundraiser for some community need. While previous events have helped raise money for repairs at the church hall, which is still owned by the St. Paul the Hermit Parish, the money raised from Sunday’s dance will go towards upgrades to Sheenboro’s municipal park, just down the street.
“We have a walking path in the park that we’d like to pave, because if it was paved it would have better access to it,” Gleason said.
She said the RA is looking into what options the community has to take over ownership of the hall.
“This is a heritage building, but Heritage Canada doesn’t give money to churches,” she said. “So in order to get any kind of upgrades, we have to get [the building] out of the church [ownership]. We want to make it really a community hall, because our community is growing.”
