Do you envision a future where the traditions you love flourish and endure? Join others who have promised to help dance, music, and song communities thrive across North America!
Join the Legacy of Joy Society
It’s simple to join the Legacy of Joy Society:
- Include CDSS in your estate plans.
- Notify CDSS that you’ve done so and express your willingness to share your story.
Becoming a member of the Legacy of Joy Society is a great way to make your core values known to others while ensuring the sustainability of our organization. Generations to come will benefit from your gift, and your lasting support of our mission will serve as an inspiration to others.
Learn More About Planned Giving
Find frequently asked questions about planned giving here.
Still have questions? We’re here to help! Email robin@cdss.org.
Quick info about CDSS for your will or beneficiary forms:
Legal Name: Country Dance and Song Society, Inc
Address: 116 Pleasant St., Suite 334, Easthampton, MA 01067
501(c)(3) Tax ID: 04-3031125
Meet Our Society Members
Bill WarburtonSure, getting dressed up for the annual Playford Ball is fun, but for over 50 years it’s been the variety of moods in the music and patterns in the dances that have kept me engaged. Not to mention the people I’ve danced them with.
Over those years, what I’ve learned is that it just doesn’t happen all by itself. People who cared kept those dances going, kept that music playing. They learned from someone and they are passing it on – like family love. But dedication and love are not enough. They also need money. So, when I no longer need it, they’re going to get some of mine.
Doug Plummer & Robin ShapiroRobin and I both grew up in families that believed in philanthropy, and it’s a core value that we brought into the marriage. We have enough. Not everyone does. We’ve worked for it, sure, but it’s mostly the result of luck and timing and privilege. We both consider it a duty, a joyful one at that, to see to it that our fortunate circumstances get used to make the kind of difference we want to see in the world.
I found the music and dance scene after college, at a stage of life when I was emotionally not in such great shape. Dancing literally gave me the first sense of belonging somewhere. The long term friendships that I’ve maintained only began then. Dancing saved me and made me more whole.
Brooke FriendlyThe country dance form can be thought of as an exquisite vessel, in itself beautiful in shape, yet highly abstract.
We can choose to fill this vessel with whatever meaning we like.
If we like,
we can pursue a particular friendship;
we can rejoice in a sense of community;
we can see in the music and the dance the highest of spiritual values;
we can see it as good fun.
The dance is all of these and greater than all of them.This lovely quote is from my first dance mentor, Carl Wittman (1943-1986). It has been an inspiration for many years.
Dave Pokorney & Jolaine Jones-PokorneyIt was a beautiful Sunday morning in Gainesville, Florida. Sunlight was streaming through the windows onto the dance floor. The band Steamshovel and caller Alex Deis-Lauby were guiding us through an amazing morning of dance. I said to my partner, “Isn’t this a lovely way to spend a Sunday morning?” She replied, “BEST CHURCH EVER!”
It is a sentiment we’ve heard on dance floors across the country. Many of us consider the music and dance community to be our spiritual community or extended family. We recognize in the friendships and the transcendent experiences, an element of the holy.
John DexterJohn Dexter—morris dancer, musician, teacher, fearless leader and guiding light of New York City’s Bouwerie Boys—passed quietly from this world in May 2023, leaving behind a 50 year legacy of incalculable breadth. Thank you, John! Thank you for the legacy of your years of dancing, playing, and teaching, and for your generous legacy gift, which will help CDSS to flourish this year and well into the future.
I have just finished the somewhat surreal task of planning for my eventual demise by establishing a process by which a portion of my estate will be given to CDSS.
As do others during this process, I evaluated all the possible people and organizations to whom I might give this sort of gift. And I concluded that CDSS is the organization I feel most strongly about.
The reasons are at once myriad and simple.
Thanks to the Massachusetts Cultural Council for their generous support.