Oak Creek Student To Lead Dance Performance Against Addiction

OAK CREEK, WI — Oak Creek High School sophomore Ava Lemke's young life has already been touched by the terrors of substance abuse and addiction in the world around her, and she is using her artistic talents to help raise money for two area programs that help others.

Lemke is directing the production of a special evening of dance this May called the the Dancers Against Substance Abuse. The performance at Danceworks in Milwaukee is on Saturday, May 5th at 5:30 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. All proceeds from the performance will benefit Meta House and SALS Recovery Houses, two local agencies dedicated to providing valuable intervention and treatment services to those fighting their addiction.

"I attended a school board public hearing about drug testing at the high school and noticed how uninformed parents are. I also realized how non discriminatory addiction is," she told Patch. "Seeing some of my friends from middle school go down a dangerous path scares me and as I continuously hear overdose death stories on the news — I just knew I had to do something to help protect my community by educating students, parents, teachers, and general citizens about this horrible epidemic."

Lemke has been dancing since she was four years old at the Next Step Dance Studio, studying ballet, tap, jazz, lyrical, contemporary and hip hop, and it’s been her passion ever since.

"I wanted to use my platform to inspire others, especially teenagers, to speak for what they believe in and use their talents to benefit the community," she told Patch. "I believe as young adults we often feel there is no way to make such a profound impact alone, but I wanted to falsify that assumption and prove with enough determination, people of any age, background, and walk of life can make a difference and create a powerful event such as this."

Last year as a freshman, Lemke was able to lead the logistics team in establishing an AODA 5k Awareness Walk and Resource Fair at Oak Creek High School through the Chick fil' A Leadership Academy. The effort managed to raise more than $2,000 for the Meta House and SALS Recovery Center.

How to Go:

Where: Danceworks Inc., 1661 N Water Street , Milwaukee, WI, 53202
Times:
Sat, May 5, 2018 at 5:30 p.m.
Sat, May 5, 2018 at 7:30 p.m.
Tickets: https://app.arts-people.com/in...
Phone: 414-277-8480

Submitted Photo, Published With Permission