How it works
How to Use This Program to the Fullest
The SQUARE 4 LIFE program is designed to bring a new crowd to square dance; Those who are interested in fitness and personal well being. There have been numerous studies on the health aspects of Square Dance. Time and time again, Square Dance has been summed up as the perfect exercise. Those of us who dance know how good it is for you and how good it makes you feel, not only to dance but also to be a part of a community. What we need to do is educate the public.
Once you have decided to adopt the SQUARE4LIFE program the first thing to do is to find a someone in the medical field to support you. This can be a nursing school, a wellness center, a doctor, health department, university, YW or YMCA. This lends credibility to the program and helps to make it more newsworthy. You may also be able to get them to participate by offering blood pressure screenings and weight monitoring. Often hospitals will have an outreach program specifially designed for this type of program.
Once you have found someone to support you you should submit an article to your local newspapers. For the best impact you should submit the article just after the New Year. This way you are corresponding with New Year's Resolutions, this connection helps to make your article more news worthy in the eyes of the newspaper. A sample news release is available for download, you should tailor it to suit your club and possibly include quotes from the person or organization that is supporting you.
After the beginning of the year, begin your program by handing out a wellness flyer each week. If you want to you can kick off the program with a wellness or health fair, offering blood pressure screenings and weighing all those who want to participate. If you do this it will give you material for a second press release after your program is complete. Our club, for example, lost over 200 lbs. We wrote a second article with the results and submitted it after we completed the program. The end of our program corresponded with the completion and graduation of our class in May.
At the end of summer our federation adopted the SQUARE4LIFE program. We mailed out a packet of materials to each of our member clubs. At this time we also made available hats and shirts with the SQUARE4LIFE logo. These may be obtained by your club by contacting Sam's Club Embroidery, online at www.samsclub.com, click embroidery. (The name of the artwork is SQUARE4LIFE.) We submitted a press release about the federation adopting the program. Each time we submitted an article we also submitted a good quality photo. In some cases the paper came to interview us and take their own photos, in others they just ran our articles and photos as we sent them.
Each of these press releases was spaced a few months aprt to keep us in the public eye. In August we began distributing rack cards (1/3 of a sheet flyers) that we had professionally printed. On the front it said
Square Dancing is the perfect exercise for you!
Burn calories, tone muscles, strengthen bones, condition your heart, sharpen your memory, all while socializing and having fun!
Square dance is the American dance! Just as America is the melting pot, so too is square dance. Created from traditional folk dances brought over by the early settlers, square dance has its roots deep in American history.
If you're looking for
a fun and wholesome way to get in shape Square Dance is for you!
On the back we listed all
the clubs in the federation, with their contact numbers
In order to get the best results from the SQUARE 4 LIFE program follow these simple suggestions.
Distribute brochures
Leave no more than a dozen per location.
Post them on bulletin boards in the establishments you and your members frequent. Check back regularly to replace ones that have been taken. A few ideas are churches, community centers, groceries, farm supply stores and restaurants. Don't forget to take your own thumbtacks! Consider adding a sheet with your club information and tear offs at the bottom.
Make Contact
Call Community Colleges, Wellness Centers, Community Organizations to see if they are interested in offering classes
Call or visit your local paper to see if they will do an article on your club. If they will, be sure to stress the health benefits of Square Dance.
Contact local 4 H clubs, as well as Future Farmers, and Young Farmers, and Homemakers clubs.
One final thing that we did was to make business cards for our club members to distribute. On the front was our club information along with the starting date of our classes. On back was the SQUARE4LIFE logo and blurb. Our members handed them out at demos. The small size made it convenient to carry.
These things combined made for a sucessful new dance season. We retained last years graduates and opened our doors to 31 new dancers.