MEMBER SPOTLIGHT

 Member of the Quarter - Second Quarter 2009

DON BUNN is one of the most important members of the Raleigh Shag Club.

Don is definitely the "best known" member of the Raleigh Shag Club outside of our membership because he has taught thousands to dance. Don has been teaching shag lessons and promoting beach music since 1981.

Don got started as a shag instructor in Greenville, NC, when Charlie Womble asked him to take his place as a local shag instructor. Don and Charlie had become good friends when they lived in the same condominium complex in Greenville and Don says Charlie was the first person who got him involved in shagging. Don’s first shag lesson partner was Judy Bazemore (Eastwood). Then in 1985, Don moved to Fayetteville, NC and started teaching shag lessons there with Beverly Lewis. While living in Fayetteville, Don joined the Fayetteville Area Shag Association (FASA) and served as their president in 1988. Don was also honored by being inducted into the Fayetteville Area Shaggers Hall of Fame in its inaugural year, 1992.

Don competed in his first shag contest in 1980 at Gary’s in Rocky Mount, NC and has been competing and winning every since. During his first few months of competing, Don quickly moved from the Novice to the Pro Division. Don’s top placement in the National Shag Dance Championship came in 1990 when he finished in second place behind two of his mentors, Charlie Womble and Jackie McGee. Don finished in third place the following year and has placed in competition many times since then. In fact, Don Bunn and Debbie Peterson took 2^nd place in the recent National Shag Competition event held in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.

In the early 1990’s, Don was transferred to Raleigh and began teaching shag lessons at Reds Beach Music Club until it closed in June 2006. It was there that Don and Madeline May formed a Shag Class Dance Team that has learned several different dance routines and they travel around and perform in many different venues, such as retirement homes, for class reunions, charity events, such as our Hospice Cabin Fever Throwdown, and other events promoting the shag dance.

Don has traveled to many shag activities throughout the southeast including the Grand National Dance Championship in Atlanta, Georgia; the National Shag Dance Championship in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina; and the SOS Migrations twice each year to North Myrtle Beach. Don has often been asked to judge various shag contests all over North and South Carolina. For the past several years, Don has worked with the Wolfpack Shag Association and taught them many different shag steps, helped them organize and hold social events and judged their shag contests. We all know how important it is to encourage the younger generation to shag and perpetrate the shag dance.

Presently, Don is teaching shag lessons at TJ’s Night Life, home of the Raleigh Shag Club. Don Bunn and Madeline May teach on Monday nights and Don and Debbie Peterson teach on Tuesday nights each month. Don and Debbie are also invited in October of each year as the shag instructors for the Fun Blues Cruise aboard Carnival Cruise Lines.

Don served as President of RSC in 2005 and was Past President in 2006. For the past several years, Don has been our Phone Tree Person. Yes, that sexy voice you hear every month is Don as he calls to remind all RSC members about our monthly meeting, the meal menu, and upcoming social events. Some months Don is asked to talk about so many upcoming events that he sounds like he is out of breath and talks real fast.

In his dancing career, Don has won many different awards and been inducted into the Shaggers Hall of Fame at North Myrtle Beach, SC; the Fayetteville Area Shaggers Hall of Fame, Fayetteville, NC; the National Living Legends of Dance, Virginia Beach, VA; and the Sand Flea Living Legends Association in North Myrtle Beach, SC in May of this year. We are very proud of Don’s many accomplishments and know that he should be in the spotlight for he certainly does great things to promote shag dancing.

The Raleigh Shag Club proudly salutes Don Bunn as the RSC Spotlight Member for the 2nd Quarter of 2009. Let’s all congratulate Don Bunn on a job well done as past President and the current Phone Tree Person for RSC.

Don greatly deserves to be "in our Spotlight".