photo by: Nick Krug

In this 2010 file photo, Leo Shaw smiles at his significant other, Eugenia Bryan, as the two slow dance during an Oldsters United for Responsible Service dance at the Eagle’s Lodge, 1803 W. Sixth St. Shaw, who is the president of the group, says they’ve been organizing weekly dances since 1981.

The last dance hasn’t been played for the Oldsters United for Responsible Service.

The social organization of senior dancers has found a new home at Holcom Park Recreation Center, 2700 W. 27th St., said Nancy Shockley, secretary and treasurer of OURS. The group had feared that with the Lawrence Eagles Lodge changing ownership the 37-year-old group would have to dissolve for lack of a venue for its weekly dance gatherings.

Mariann Bradley, a 10-year OURS member with her husband, Alden, said the group’s persistence paid off with the help of the Lawrence Parks and Recreation Department.

“We never gave up,” said Bradley, of rural Eudora. “We’ve been working really hard with Lawrence Parks and Rec. We are going to start meeting at Holcom Rec Center on July 15.”

The group will get half a gym for 5 to 9 p.m. Sundays for $80 a night, Bradley said. OURS members will set up chairs around their half of the gym and dance to live music in that square. Couples do the country two-step, Western swing, line dancing and more.

“We have people come from 27 different towns from around the area,” she said. “Our average age is from 80 to 90.”

The Holcom Rec Center is not ideal, though, because food and drink won’t be allowed on the gym floor, so the potluck dinners that have been a part of the Sunday night gatherings will be discontinued, Shockley said. Because of the loss of the popular potluck dinner, OURS members will give the Holcom site a three-week test beginning July 15.

“That is a big part of our evening,” she said. “We’ll find out how dedicated our members are just to dancing. They told us they would settle for a smaller place, less parking or even a concrete floor as long as they could keep dancing. So we’ll see.”

Initially, the last OURS dance at the Eagles Lodge was to have been June 24, but the Eagles have agreed to let the dancers meet there until they start meeting at Holcom, Shockley said.

The end of the Sunday night gatherings would have left a big hole in her and her husband’s lives, Bradley said.

“We’ve been going for 10 years,” she said. “We go every Sunday unless we’re sick or have a family commitment. When we have Easter dinner, my family knows it’s time to hit the road at 4 in the afternoon because we’re going dancing.”