All year long, we’ve seen concerts, potlucks, yoga classes and many other creative fundraisers for Pull Together, but this is a first: Weekly 5Rhythms dance classes, collecting donations to this campaign to support First Nations fighting Enbridge in court.

For the month of July, Joanne Winstanley donated a portion of the proceeds from her Tuesday night classes in Victoria to Pull Together. There was also a donation jar at each class, and participants raised $246 over the course of the month. Joanne added $100 to bring the total to $346. Thanks to a matching grant from Patagonia, the grand total will be $692!

Joanne posted this message on her DanceHereNow Facebook page: “This is where I love the weight of community – let’s see how much we can raise this month, to help fund the defense of traditional First Nations territories against Enbridge. I’ll let you know our results at the end of our final class, July 28th. Ready – go!”

When Joanne delivered the cheque this week, she included this lovely note: “along with our donation, we send our gratitude and full-body prayers for the good work you are doing.”

On October 1st-8th, the seven First Nations supported by Pull Together will finally get their day in court, at the Federal Court of Appeal in Vancouver. Sierra Club BC and RAVEN Trust will continue to collect donations until the end of the year. If you’d like to organize a fundraising event, or set up a fundraising page to share on social media, you can start at www.pull-together.ca or contact outreach@sierraclub.bc.ca.

Thank you to Joanne and all her classmates for this awesome show of solidarity! To find out more about her classes, visit http://www.danceherenow.ca/classes/