Hats off to Celia - £115,000 raised

Celia Orr, who in 2016 was awarded an MBE for services to Highland dancing and charity, was back doing what she does best last week with her bi-annual dancing show at the Memorial Hall.

Celia, who has run her dance school in Lanark for four decades, started dancing at the age of three and turned her love of it into running a very successful school, teaching Highland, ballet, tap, modern and jazz.

And over the past 40-odd years she and her gifted dancers have managed to raise the amazing sum of £115,000 for charities based in and around Lanark.

The charities benefiting this year are: Action Medical Research, Ward 18 and the neo-natal unit at Wishaw General Hospital, Lanark Girl Guides, St Andrews drop-in support and Cargill House Club. More than 100 local children took part in this year’s production titled ‘Danceart’, which, as we went to print, were told had managed to raise another £4,000 to give out to charity. (See pages 8&9).

For decades Celia has organised the Lanimer Highland Dancing Championships, which attracts competitors from all over the country, but her dancers also play a large part in the Lanimer celebrations.

Celia said: “ One of the most important things for me in running this show is the ability it has to raise funds for the smaller, less well known charities and groups, who sometimes get forgotten about and struggle to raise money.”