SALISBURY – A second annual Dance for Kindness event will return to the streets of downtown Salisbury for a second year.
On Nov. 12, participants will kick off World Kindness Week with a choreographed dance in an effort to spread kindness to the community.
More than 160 Eastern Shore residents will be among the thousands of participants from 120 cities and 50 countries to perform and film a dance routine on North Division Street.
Grace Foxwell Murdock, coordinator for the event, said this year’s Dance for Kindness event will feature speeches from Salisbury Mayor Jake Day and Wicomico County School Superintendent Donna Hanlin, musical selections and art displays created by school students and community members.
“The community partnership is huge,” she said.
The dance itself will feature a flash mob that will display acts of kindness throughout the routine.
“It’s fun,” she said. “It’s two hours of laughing and communicating with one another, but with the groundwork of showing and sharing kindness.”
Murdock said Life Vest Inside founder Orly Wahba started the Dance for Kindness campaign six years ago to celebrate World Kindness Day on Nov. 13. Since then, the event has spread to countries around the world.
“It’s her nonprofit that focuses on empowering, educating and inspiring people to live in a kind manner,” she said.
Murdock said Wahba’s Dance for Kindness campaign is just one of the many events she has planned for the community.
“I started an initiative called Wicomico Grows Kindness to bring a collection of kindness activities to our community and one of those is Dance for Kindness,” she said. “It is a free event that has been sponsored by several organizations in the community and allows people to come and connect through kindness.”
Murdock said she is also working with Wicomico County schools and community partners to bring speakers to the area.
Earlier this week, for example, Murdock brought Leon Logothetis, star of the Netflix show “The Kindness Diaries,” to Mardela and Parkside high schools for a speaking engagement.
Murdock said Wahba will also make an appearance at Wicomico County schools and The Salisbury School in December.
She said the support of Community of Joy Church, as well as other area partners, makes her kindness events possible.
“Every community can use kindness activities because it raises the community especially when young people are involved,” she said. “It guides them to a life of kindness.”
Murdock explained that Salisbury will be the only city in Maryland to participate in the Dance for Kindness event this year and encouraged community members from surrounding areas to get involved.
The Dance for Kindness event will begin at 2 p.m. Murdock said those interested in participating in the dance can register online at www.lifevestinside.com to access a link to the choreography video. The event is free to the public.
A video of the dance will be sent to Life Vest Inside as part of its 2017 video montage.
“People will want to come,” she said. “Every experience with kindness helps to grow a kindness mindset that the world needs.”
