7th Heaven Twirlers

The 7th Heaven Twirlers, Garden City, Missouri, is a new club formed March 1995. Gary Miles and I were in business with his sister - it was a deli. We kept talking about how Garden City needed something fun to do that didn't involve going to the bars. When we talked about square dancing, it sounded like fun.

Gary started making calls. We first talked to Holden's caller, Bill Reynolds, and he directed us to Peery Lindsey. We talked to Peery, and he said he was willing to have a Western Party to see just how many we really had interested. We sure surprised him. I think Peery?s first group was 3 squares. We all graduated and formed what is how known as the 7th Heaven Twirlers. Since the club was formed, we have lost some of the original group but have gained others.

 After we got our club formed and had a name, we started a search for a group that would let us in. We contacted and joined the Missouri Federation. One of their working rules is you canft dance the same night as another club within 50 miles. That posed a problem of we had to change our dance night and Peery couldnft call for us. He had brought Ralph Morast down and helped him with our lessons. We talked to Peery and asked Ralph to be our caller. Ralph accepted and we were off and dancing. It has taken us a year but we finally had enough members to join the Heart of America, as they lowered their requirements to 24 members for 2 years. We are striving for the 32 members at the end of the time limit. So we continue to dance, do exhibitions, and talk a lot about square dancing to get others interested. We even have some of our snow birds recruiting in Texas. They find other people from our area and encourage them to take lessons there and join our club.

We have a lot of fun, but it is also a lot of hard work. We have one couple who has helped us out a lot. They have opened their home and allow us to have lessons in their garage so we don't have to pay for the hall, and we can afford to give lessons to a small group. Thanks to Don & Ruth Peterson. They also gave us a lot of help in setting up our club and getting a basis for our bylaws. Without everyone's support from the club, it would be a long drive for all of us to enjoy what we have learned.

Jeannie Burkholder Club President

Club No Longer Dancing