Inclement weather could not dampen the spirits of those attending the Hand in Hand Winter Formal Friday evening. As rain fell and raincoats were shed to reveal sequined dresses, button down shirts and even high heels, the Malibu Jewish Center & Synagogue (MJCS) was transformed into an old-fashioned high school prom for young adults with special needs and their friends to dance the night away.
Just entering the venue was made exciting with a red carpet arrival area complete with a photo backdrop of glittering streamers. Photographers snapped pictures of Hand in Hand participants and their mainstream peers who exuberantly greeted them for a winter formal dance they may not have otherwise been able to experience at a traditional high school.
Nonprofit Hand in Hand is a social inclusion program for teens and young adults with special needs who don’t get much opportunity to interact with their neurotypical peers.
“They are very scheduled. They go to a lot of therapies. They’re primarily with their parents and caregivers,” one of the founders, Janet Ettenger, explained of the group. “So, to have an opportunity to just interact freely, without supervision, so to speak, with high school and college students who are their peers and to just do the usual things like go to a dance, cook, make art, play ball or do yoga or the things we do during the week. That’s all we’re about — normalizing, leveling the playing field.”
The nonsectarian program, now in its seventh year, serves teenagers and young adults with special needs. Participants meet every Thursday from 4:30 to 6 p.m. at MJCS and come from Malibu, Santa Monica and surrounding areas to sing and do various activities with community volunteers, including many from Pepperdine University and Malibu High School.
One Pepperdine volunteer who started a few months ago, 20-year-old sophomore Bo Hudy, told The Malibu Times it has been an incredible experience.
“As soon as I heard about it I’ve been coming as much as I can. I just love it,” Hurdy said. “It’s a special place for special people and I feel a love here I feel nowhere else. It’s such a welcoming environment. You get so much more out of it than what you give. Everyone here is incredible people. It’s unbelievable what God can do for everyone and the love that is shown here is so worth coming back for. I love it.”
With Valentine’s Day falling the week of the formal, “Love” was a theme. There were plenty of heart decorations on the tables, balloons and papier-mâché flowers to add to the festivities. A DJ blasted the latest dance music along with some classics. The crowd of up to 50 people at times spent the evening dancing up a storm in groups with hands in the air or sometimes do-si-doing in pairs. People of all abilities took part, including some in wheelchairs and some who are non1verbal.
Another Hand in Hand founder, Lisa Szilagyi, explained how meaningful the Winter Formal is.
“This is such a wonderful event,” Szilagyi said. “Our teens and young adults look forward to tonight all year long. It’s a chance for them to come and dance, have a good time and it’s a wonderful thing for them. This dance is so special because for a lot of our teens and young adults, this is the only time of the year that they can get out and come to a party like this and dance and just feel like they’re part of a wonderful community, and it’s very special for all of them.”
Pepperdine junior Annie Sides, 21, has been helping at Hand in Hand for a year.
“What’s really amazing about this is that it opens a perspective that you don’t consider in your everyday life — gratitude towards health and gratitude for these wonderful souls and being able to have the opportunity to interact with them,” Sides described. “It’s so rewarding because they have the purest hearts of anyone you’ll ever meet. They have the biggest smiles and they’re so ecstatic to meet you and spend time with you. You don’t encounter that in the everyday world.”
“The most important part is community involvement because this dance is for kids with special needs and the community,” Hand in Hand’s Marcelo Gindlin, MJCS cantor, said.
Anyone interested in becoming a volunteer is encouraged to call the Malibu Jewish Center and Synagogue at 310.456.2178.
