Owen and Linda Williamson
River City Rounds,Brisbane.
We started Square Dancing in 1986 as we wanted an activity that we could share with our children, aged 13 and 11. As a family we had a great time and made many good friends and enjoyed the social life.
The following year, Owen and I learnt to Round Dance with Jane and Alan Rayner and very quickly became hooked. In 1990 I started cueing and in 1992 we took over the running of the K-Dee Round Dance Club which had been founded by Kev and Dulce Collins in the late 1970’s. We felt very privileged to be asked to lead the club and were very grateful to Kev and Dulce for their ongoing assistance and advice. In 1996 we changed the name of the club to River City Rounds.
In December 2008, Owen and I made the difficult decision to close River City Rounds.
After running a club for 17 years we decided that we wanted to continue our involvement with the round dancing movement and that we wanted to be able to dance together. We also wanted the freedom to be able to travel as Owen approached retirement. We have been grateful for the understanding of our dancing friends and we will continue to enjoy their company at dancing events. We have been humbled by the support that we have received over the years and the words of encouragement that we have received since announcing our retirement from running a club.
Apart from enjoying dancing we have been very grateful to our dancers for the support that they have given to worthwhile charities. Every year at the Christmas party for River City Rounds, a raffle or similar fund-raising measure has been carried out to raise money. This idea started with Kev and Dulce Collins when they ran the K-Dee Round Dance Club. Each year members would bring an item for the Christmas hampers and these hampers would then be raffled. The proceeds were donated to a cancer research institute. Since taking over from Kev and Dulce in 1992 we have continued to hold raffles each year and have raised a total of $5570. Allemander Rounds and Valentine Rounds have joined us for the Christmas parties since 1999 and this has lead to increased donations.
Donations have been made to: Cancer research, Australian Cancer Council, National Heart Foundation, Royal Flying Doctor Service, Diabetes Institute, the McPherson family (for their daughter with leukaemia), the Kim Walters Choices Program, Spinal Muscular Atrophy Association, “Movember”, Heart Foundation of Australia and the Queensland Cancer Council.
We will enjoy being social dancers for most of the year, but will still host the K.D. Round dance evening in July each year.