Keep On Dancing: Dancing Grannies Unite Again At Franklin Parade

FRANKLIN, WI — Making appearances at local Christmas parades are nothing new to the Milwaukee Dancing Grannies, whose bedazzled costuming and festive dance steps have become a holiday tradition.

But when the popular dance troupe made their first appearance at a parade since losing four members in the tragedy that took place at the Waukesha Christmas parade, Saturday’s performance at Franklin’s parade held special meaning.

Appearing together for the first time since the Waukesha tragedy on Nov. 21, the Dancing Grannies paid honor to the four people who were killed in Waukesha, when a driver plowed through barricades and entered the parade route. The dance troupe wore matching sweatshirts with the names of those lost while not forgetting the events of what happened just weeks ago.

"I just started hearing people scream and I've done enough parades over the years to know the difference between enjoyment that we are yelling ‘we love you’ kind of things and a horror scream and it was a horror scream,” Ali Wachter, who was carrying the group’s banner in Waukesha, told CBS58 on Saturday. “I heard the tires squeal. I turned around and I saw the car coming for basically me and the banner. I jumped out of the way so I would not be hit.”

The Dancing Grannies’ matching sweatshirts included the names of Virginia Sorenson, Lee Owen, Tamara Durand and Wilhelm "Bill" Hospel, all of whom were killed in the Waukesha parade tragedy. Hospel is the husband of the one of the group's members who survived the incident.

The shirts worn by the grannies, who marched arm-in-arm on Saturday, also included a message of perseverance with the words “Keep on Dancing” printed on the sweatshirts.

As of Monday, a Go Fund Me effort to help the families of the Dancing Grannies lost in the Waukesha parade tragedy has raised more than $8,100 toward the group’s $30,000 goal. The group has also started selling T-shirts honoring the memories of those lost. Those shirts may be purchased on the group’s Facebook page.

The Dancing Grannies have been marching at local parades for the better part of 40 years and despite last month's tragedy, the group is determined to keep moving forward despite the loss of four lives in Waukesha.

"I don't want people to think that we're done," Sharon Millard, who has been with the Dancing Grannies for nearly seven years, told the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel. "We're not done. We're going to keep going."

Franklin’s parade was the first of its kind and took place at a time when other communities canceled their parades after the Waukesha tragedy. The city increased security for the parade and used snowplows to block the intersections of the parade route, according to local media reports.

While some of the group’s members are still recovering from their injuries suffered in Waukesha, the grannies who marched on Saturday in Franklin did so knowing that those who were killed in November would have wanted the group to do as the shirts said.

Keep On Dancing.

"I think they would be pretty proud of us to be doing this, Ginny and Lee were the glue that kept us together,” Dancing Granny Jean Knutson told NBC4. “So yeah we're trying to honor them and keep the grannies going for the future.”

Go Fund Me is a Patch promotional partner.