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Pamela Beaver Benefit Concert
April 10, 2006
7:00 p.m.
Orem High School Auditorium The Pamela Beavers Benefit Fund.
Donate at any Wells Fargo Bank.
Brooke Walker reporting
For a dancer, life is viewed as a series of steps, and sometimes, falls.
One ballerina thought she had lost it all before realizing nothing can destroy her passion.
"Her extension was amazing...her artistry. You could see her passion in her dancing."
These are the days Pamela Beavers likes to remember.
"Dance is a gift. Everything, it was everything."
But for this lifelong dancer and mother of five, two years ago everything changed.
Pamela Beavers: "I have a vague memory of teaching class..."
On a break from teaching dance Pamela tried to cross State Street in Orem. She was hit by a car and spent the next five months in the hospital, barely hanging on. She was told she would never dance again.
Pamela Beavers: "I dreamed of dance. That was my motivation for learning to walk again."
While multiple surgeries, a resulting stroke and medication made it physically and emotionally difficult, that dream eventually came true.
"It was really hard to come back and see myself in the mirror. (Reporter: because it's so different? ) It's so different."
Dance has been a key part of Pamela's recovery. During therapy she would draw upon her ballet training and use it as motivation.
"My therapist found out I was a ballet dancer so he would always talk about ballet in therapy and try and get my body to tap into what I already knew I could do."
One day that happened.
Pamela Beavers: "I remember being angry with my arm I was looking at it telling it to go higher and it just wouldn't, it just wouldn't. My mother-in-law came over and said Pamela think of high fifth, show me high fifth. And I did high fifth and there my arms went-right up to high fifth."
Her positive attitude continues to motivate those around her, including 13-year old Carly, who suffers from muscular dystrophy.
Each week Pamela teaches Carly ballet, sharing the same passion that pulled her through.
"Life is hard. It's frustrating. But I have hope and that's the one thing that I feel is another gift. Because if you're living with out hope, it's not very easy to live."
Pamela's former students are trying to help her raise funds for a new treatment program at the University of Utah. They are holding a benefit concert in her honor Monday night at Orem High.
