Donna Schrimer
Berryton, Kansas
At the 66th Kansas Square Dance Convention, our activity was compared to a three-legged stool made up of dancers, callers/cuers, and administrative leadership. Donna is one of a very few people who meets the requirement for each leg of the stool.
In 1982 Donna’s grandmother bribed Donna to take square dance lessons, and the rest is history! Donna is a child square dancing prodigy (a child with extraordinary talent) and she also claims membership in a talented posterity line. Donna is the third of five generations who square, round, line, clog and skate. Yes, her family has square danced on roller skates.
Donna has taught three different yet related dancing styles: clogging; lines; and squares, and is a multi-talented dancer and teacher. She dances both male and female movements (all positions), and therefore she is a godsend to any dance and a great square “filler”. She dances the Basic through Advanced programs.
Donna has served as President, Vice President, District Delegate, Travel Chairman, and Decoration Chairman for many of the clubs she belonged to over the years. She also volunteered and served as Convention Coordinator for the Kansas State Convention alongside her husband. She helped with the layout of the program booklet for several conventions and created advertisements for clubs and businesses. She has not missed a Kansas State Convention since 1983. She served with her husband on the Sunflower Board as Business Chairman for the 57th National Square Dance Convention® in Wichita, Kansas, and she also served on the Publicity Committee as Director of Graphic Arts. In 2018 Donna worked with the 67th National Square Dance Convention® in Kansas City, Missouri and served the Publicity Committee as Vice Chairman of Media Events. She has attended 25 CALLERLAB Conventions, many State and national conventions, festivals, square dance weeks at Kirkwood Lodge, USA West, Canadian Nationals and the 50th Japan Square Dance Convention in 2011 where she represented CALLERLAB and this wonderful activity. Donna has made many friends over the years, not only in the State but also internationally and has proven time and again that anyone can make friends around the world through square dancing.
Because of her legacy of being a generational dancer, Donna has always strived to expand and foster youth activities. She has raised more than $1,300 for youth callers. These donations help offset the expenses of learning to be a caller. Her mantra is, “We won’t have an activity in the future without our youth callers and dancers to move our activity forward into the future.” Donna currently serves as the Vice Chairman of CALLERLAB’s Youth Activities Committee.
Her achievements exceed the dance floor and extend to the other two areas of our activity--administration and calling. Did you know that as a caller herself, Donna was a member of KSDCA and CALLERLAB? She is currently the Administrative Assistant to CALLERLAB’s Executive Director, her husband, Dana. CALLERLAB is blessed with a person who can organize and direct the many facets of CALLERLAB including registration, Ways & Means, programing, scheduling and just being the “glue” of the CALLERLAB Convention. Donna was awarded the CALLERLAB “AWARD OF EXCELLENCE” in 2017.
Her excellent leadership extends, last but not least, to the Kansas square, round, line, and clogging dancers as the Editor of Travel On. Without her organizational and editing talents we would not have this amazing road map to keep us on the right path to our dances and activities.
Donna, thank you so much for investing your time and talents into our dancing community.