<FORT STEWART, Ga. - Baby Loves Disco kept Club Stewart's Ballroom rocking for three hours, Nov. 8.
Youngsters filled the club's dance floor and, to the sound of disco, pop and funk songs, excitedly burned off enough energy to have powered Fort Stewart and Hunter Army Airfield for a week.
Some parents joined their youngsters on the dance floor. Others, smiles on their faces and clapping their hands, encouraged their children to have a blast.
The Baby Loves Disco crew filled the 180-minute event with dance contests, giveaways and non-stop fun for kids up to seven years old. A bubble machine added to the fun.
For the kids who didn't want to spend all of their time dancing, there was face-painting, nail-painting, various crafts, a graffiti board and snacks at the Family and Morale, Welfare and Recreation event. The event was free.
Chris Dent, recreational delivery system manager, said the event was designed to energize the children, give them an opportunity to relax and have fun, and to encourage them to exercise.
Staging the Fort Stewart event was an "amazing" and "emotional" experience for Andy Hurwitz, a co-founder of Baby Loves Disco, and his staff.
And it all began with an e-mail from a Military Mom who wanted her children to experience "Baby Loves Disco."
"I'm from New York City (where Baby Disco originated), and I'd known about Baby Loves Disco since before I married my husband," said Valerie Cloutier, wife of Maj. Marc Cloutier of 1st Heavy Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division, currently deployed.
They have two children, Grant, almost 3, and Molly, 17 months.
"I heard they were doing a tour, so I looked it up to see if they were coming anywhere near here, and the closest was Atlanta." She inquired in the e-mail if the tour might bring them closer to Fort Stewart.
Hurwitz said, "Valerie didn't ask us to come, but she described the situation here. It's not just kids not having their parents home, but worrying about their safety. We're a Family Dance Party and we're a company run by Families. It just went right to our hearts, and we didn't think twice about it. We had a gig scheduled for Jacksonville and we canceled it and came here instead."
Baby Loves Disco did not charge for the event.
Hurwitz, whose "day job" is that of being an attorney in the music industry, said coming to Fort Stewart has had a profound effect on him and the staff and inspired them to want to do more.
"It's one of those things that you think you know what it is going to be like. None of us had ever been to a military installation before, so we didn't know what to expect. We got here early, we got a tour, we got to play with some tanks..."
He added, "We've played some of the biggest nightclubs in the country. We played in front of 10,000 people at Central Park, but this has been, for all of us, probably the best experience we've had all year."
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