THE TRUTH ABOUT WEDNESDAY SWING
        On January 6, 1999 we began the Original Wednesday Swing at the Gulfport Casino, in Gulfport FL. It was no easy task, as the management at the time was certain the event was destined for failure. Another local dance promoter was running a swing night at the Casino on Tuesday nights, which was not doing well at all. Their all-senior crowd wasn't biting, and the manager didn't believe our dance would work.
        We had a different idea -- Instead of marketing to seniors (the Casino's sole demographic at the time) we would market to young, and middle-aged adults. Against the better judgment of the Casino management, we started our Wednesday journey. We made our weekly dance a full time job, each of us working more than 40 hours a week to bring our attendance up. During our tenure at the Casino we had no less than 3 major-newspaper feature articles about our event, gave away more than 250,000 flyers, made hundreds of free, personal appearances promoting Wednesday Swing, and eventually increased our weekly attendance from 35 to almost 300. During that time, the Casino closed twice for renovations (the success of our dance had a prominent place on their grant applications), and we had to work twice as hard to get people to try our alternate venues (St. Petersburg, Polish-American Society, and St. Petersburg Moose Lodge), but after almost a year of interruptions, we had gained another 800 names on our email list. At the end of 3 1/2 years we were the single biggest money maker in the history of the Casino, and we had created the best-attended, longest-running, weekly swing dance party in the entire South -- with little or no help from the Casino management.
        After we opened Savoy South Dance Hall (and having every intention to continue our Wednesdays at the Casino), the Casino management tightened the screws to such an extent to make it impossible for us to continue. And after the weekly rent skyrocketed to $750, with new, oppressive rules being implemented weekly, we were forced to move our dance to Savoy South Dance Hall.
        The success of the Original Wednesday Swing at Savoy South was phenomenal. We enjoyed close to 200 in attendance every week, continuing our run as the best-attended, longest-running, weekly swing dance, in the entire South.
        Now, after a brief rest stop at Boomerz in Seminole, we have a great, new venue -- The St. Petersburg Portuguese-American Suncoast Association [PASA]. We are absolutely thrilled over this great opportunity. We love this new venue, as we are confident you will.
        The history of the Original Wednesday Swing now continues at PASA.