“I’m spending Christmas with Jesus this year”
January 6, 2010 
On Christmas Eve 2009, the Community Living Foundation lost its founder: Mary Jean Brick.
Please read the entire obituary here as it appeared in the Record -Eagle.
An Emotional SwingShift Event
Mary Jean Brick, Community Living Center Founder
There was more than one wet eye at the Opera House this month as a crowd of SwingShift and the Stars goers
delivered a standing ovation to Mary Jean Brick, founder of the region’s Community Living Center.
The passionate lifelong advocate for people with special needs was on hand to cheer dancers Pete Currie and Erin Gallagher Peck, representing the Community Living Foundation in the SwingShift fund-raiser for area charities. But the tables were turned when Pete surprised Mary Jean with some heartfelt comments from the dance floor, and Erin presented her with a bouquet of flowers.
That presentation was actually the second of the night for the CLF. The first was a glitzy dance shoe with the #10 (dance judge’s perfect score), given to Erin and Pete by Jake Gustavson, a CLC resident and subject of a moving video spotlighting the CLC as one of the evening’s two featured charities. The shoe was presented following the dancers’ featured performance.
(From left) Mary Jean Brick, CLC founder; Judy Harrison, creator of the SwingShift And The Stars competition for regional charities; and Pete Currie, dancer for the Community Living Foundation. (Photos by Mike Drilling, Windbourne Studios Inc.)
All that emotion turned to support as the crowd responded with a record night of donations to their favorite charities. Final tallies showed revenues of $8,076.50 for the CLF alone, making it the top fund-raiser of the evening, and bringing the NPO’s total to $14,490.41.
To date, over $43,000 has been raised by the charity dance event, according to organizer Judy Harrision. (For a complete tally and dance results: www.swingshiftandthestars.com.)
Tickets are now available for the event’s grand finale to be held New Year’s Eve.
They can be purchased online through Treat, the community’s online arts and cultural ticketing system.
