Merry Lynn Morris Honored as Lightning Community Hero
Wednesday, March 09, 2016
Tonight's community hero has opened the world of dance to people with disabilities. In 1987, Morris' father suffered a severe brain injury in a head-on collision. After, she became a full-time caregiver that used the arts to improve his quality of life. While serving as a board member at VSA Florida, she coordinated A New Definition of Dance, a program featuring a group of dancers with disabilities from all over the world. These series of performances aimed to eliminate negative stereotypes, introduce students with disabilities to new methods of communication and self-expression and to provide career development for artists with disabilities.
Morris has served in an active volunteer role for Revolutions Dance as a teacher and choreographer. Morris' ambition is to make dance universally accessible and to ensure the general public that dancers can produce professional-level work regardless of their looks and abilities.
Morris becomes the 213th Lightning Community Hero since Jeff and Penny Vinik introduced the program in 2011-12 with a $10 million, five-season commitment to the Tampa Bay community. Through this evening's game, in total, the Lightning Foundation has granted $10.8 million to more than 300 different non-profits in the Greater Tampa Bay area.
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