Happy 2nd Anniversary SATB!

Each Day til the end of April, we will share a SATB FUN FACT.

Celebrating our 2nd Anniversary!

First Fact is that we launched this little biz today (April 11th), 2 years ago.

And look where we are now….a group of over 1.8K!

We have never and will never do promotions of “hey we reached Xnumber of people in our group, add your friends” or “add 5 friends and be in a drawing” etc etc.

If you have found yourself in our Facebook group or have received an invite to the group….its because you found us and joined or someone thought you would enjoy line dancing or maybe you once line danced before…who knows. But we are an ALL ORGANICALLY GROWN GROUP! How cool is that?!?!

We want you in the group, if you want to be there! Even though it’s a public group and anyone and everyone can see it. Being a joined member just makes you cooler. just saying

Our first year, we established on April 11, 2021 and started our dances in May 2021.

We learned quite a lot and ironed out more and more details in our first year.

This fun fact does not include our classes, classic, or networking gigs. This is purely the count of the dances we hosted.

Some live and learn moments, trial runs and just a crap ton of NETWORKING.

We were tickled that our first year went so well, with just coming out of the “c-word” restrictions. But we found venues to work with us and it got the ball rolling.

We met a lot of new faces, attended workshops, hosted dances, explored NUMEROUS venues….all trying to find the right fit for us as well as our growing group of dancers.

The first year went and gone by so quickly, that the 2nd one seems to have as well. It’s one heck of a ride and we love it!

yesterday we shared how many dance events we hosted in our first 2 years and 2023 is EVEN BIGGER!

This projection of 105 DANCES was before adding our 2 newest venues and DOESN’T include Classes, Classic, Workshops, or anything else we have up our sleeve.

Thats 5 times more than 2021

&

2.5 times more than 2022

HOW COOL IS THAT?!?!?!

Each year, of course, we added new venues. Always on the lookout for #1 Wood Flooring #2 Location #3 It’s fit to SATB

We don’t just host events anywhere. (I’m super picky on flooring)

This year we also have added locations. Including a Monday Night Regular- if it all goes well. Ya’ll show up in force on April 24th at Spring Valley Farms.

SO Far we have hosted Dances in the following towns of PA

-Newville (Lions Club, Kutz Barn)

-Carlisle  (Comfort Inn Suites, Fish & Game)

-Dillsburg (American Legion, VFW)

-McConnellsburg (Tower Ridge)

-Shippensburg (Community Center, Jam in the Park)

-Dover (Spring Valley Farms)

-Wellsville (coming May 13th at Footlight Ranch)

-Pine Grove (Old Hardware store)

-Marysville (Lions Club)

-Worthington (Community Center)

-Shermansdale (Shermans Creek Inn)

-Duncannon (Doyle Hotel)

We are a traveling Company….meaning we do put on line dance events in lots of places.

Our very first dance was a success! We held that dance on May 18th of 2021. At the Comfort Inn Suites of Carlisle PA. 

Our first dance was full of fun things. Photo booth, party lights, and some decor.

We were still getting ourselves put together as SATB and figuring out what exactly we wanted to all incorporate into our dance events and so on.

We went to using just notebook paper at the front door and notebooks for dance requests to having actual forms we made.

we get more official each year

Ken Rife was our DJ coming out of retirement to help us kick off our little adventure at our very first dance at Comfort Suites.

Ken used to DJ (& co-OWN) Longhorn Country Dance Club of Shippensburg, PA and worked at Scott Donato’s Tractor Twang back in the day.

Ken also was the DJ to work at our very first SATB Classic.

So Martha Prazenica and I both grew up outside of Newville. Literally 5 mins apart. Some of you know Martha and I have 10 years age difference- but that never mattered

It’s a small world! Let us tell you about it…

After Martha and I were friends for quites some time, we were at my daughter’s 1st birthday party at my parents farm when Martha got to talking to my darling Grandma Richwine (oh how I miss her so).

Well, my grandma’s name was Neva Richwine. Martha heard the name and it sparked a memory. When Martha was a little girl, her mom sold (Tupperware- i think) and she took Martha along to my grandma’s house. Martha has one of those memories, she never forgets. So she remembered visiting my grandma at a young age…

THEN—-there’s more…

My mom, Mary, went to school with Martha’s sister, Betty. #mindblown.

Martha and I met in 2005 officially. She was married then with two kiddos and I was dating some guy that went dancing where i did. (we don’t mention either of their names nowadays, just saying LOL)

We hit it off then, we danced 6-7 days a week. Her cute kids in tow for some dance venues. She introduced me to LoCash Cowboys…Hot Little Cutie Pie (that’s all I need to say- if you know, you know)

We quickly became the three amigas with Tracey Lytle. 

When we out dancing, our names were Maxi, Paddy, Tammi. We never used our real names especially at Cancun Cantina West.

All 3 of us also joined Thirtyone with Ashley Mentzer and with Renee Pugh. We did that for quite a few years too. Annual trips to OHIO. And tons of memories there.

Then in 2021…We Launched SATB!

There is way more history with Martha and I…But there is the Tip of the IceBerg.

We have made so many raffle baskets, held benefits, donated time for causes, donated monies for causes…

Just literally, this business is ours but just isn’t about us. It’s about every dancer that makes our business possible. It’s about each community member we impact. It’s about being good Human beings.

It may start with 5, 6, 7, 8…But it doesn’t stop there

In 2022, we held to dance benefits in Particular for two ladies near and dear to us.

One of martha’s dearest friends was diagnosed with stage 3 lung cancer at the beginning of 2022. Nicole Snyder was not a smoker, so this diagnosis was completely out of the blue. She had been through chemo, radiation and blood transfusions.

Our gal Kayla Alexander, still fights her battle of cancer. She  was diagnosed with stage 3 infiltrating Ductal Carcinoma Triple Negative Breast Cancer in October 2020. She has had a long journey battling but that's not where it ends. August 2022, she was diagnosed with stage 4 Metastic Breast Cancer. She is a fighter and continues to fight every day as she is once again doing chemo treatments.

This year and for all those following, we will continue to support and raise money for Others.

Whether it be dance benefits, donating our time, donating our services etc. We are all family.

Funny thing…as much as Martha Prazenica and I dance…our Husbands, Matt Prazenica & James Rissler don’t….well KIND OF.

Martha’s husband will tell you he has two left feet. But he can slow dance a circle. He has tried his hand at line dancing and swing with Martha. But Matt is more of our behind the scenes and “silent partner” as he says.

My husband will tell you that he can dance…it’s just that he is “Done Fishing”. I actually met James while Line Dancing. We first met that we know of at Winners Circle Saloon. All he had to say was “Would you like to dance?” And we talked every day since then and married 2 years later. So he can dance…but he is done fishing. LOL That’s why he isn’t at too many of the events But you will see him now again. Just to make me happy

Martha and I are proof you don’t always need a dance partner to do a partner dance. Just watch us on the floor, you’ll see if you haven’t picked up on that yet. Some are a little tricky to do alone  like Santa Fe. It is doable, just fun with a partner.

So as much as Martha and I are alike….we are totally different too. We know it‘s an oxymoron but hey it’s just how it works.

We went through so many ideas…..sooooo many! Some days after going back and forth all day we didn’t speak to each other the next day. LOL

We were racking our brains to make something that we were both comfortable of being responsible to of representing Martha and I and our Line Dance Biz.

We tried pulling from our line dancing background- we couldn’t have our logo looking like anyone else’s. And we didn’t want it to look generic, like anyone could pull images and put it together.

We tried pulling from our background of our life growing up….milk cans, wind mill, barns, fence rows, etc…..

We tried using literal meaning of ”at the Bit” using horse bits, horse shoes, etc.

We tried going with shape imagery…Circles, square framing, and other shapes.

We also thought about ”branding” logos too.

We also experimented with floral arrangements and such…

NOTHING THAT STOOD OUT TO US- that said “this is It”

EVEN THE FONTS>>>>we took a while to agree on something that we liked. ( I wish I could make Martha’s printing a FONT )

THEN - I went to hand drawing!!! Putting my graphic design from HS to thee test!

I drew up so many ideas….

BUT WE FINALLY DID IT!!

The fence row and barbwire is hand drawn by me, the boots are a paid for graphic, and the fonts….we found two to agree on.

And Honestly it has served us very well. It‘s suits us to a T, we think.