Valentine’s Day Dance Sets Hearts Aglow

Three years ago when Hana Asfar danced with Ron Whitley for the first time, she felt instant chemistry. Hitting the dance floor at Lake Forest’s own Heart to Heart Dance, Asfar said that feeling hadn't changed one bit.

“We don’t get to see each other that often, but we spend time together whenever we get the chance,” said Asfar with a smile.

Along with other seniors, Asfar and Whitley danced the night away on Friday to classic rock performed by the Silver Foxes Band. It was the eighth year in a row that the city’s Community Service Department has put on the Valentine's Day-themed dance. For $7, seniors enjoyed food, music and photos that captured the night's memories.

This year, 107 senior citizens registered for the Heart to Heart Dance. On Friday evening, they filled nearly every seat in the room-turned-romantic wonderland at . Local students from the  lent a helping hand to prepare the City Council chamber for the dance.

“[The staff] go out of their way to make everything exciting and fun for us,” said Helen Willison, a resident of . “You know, most of us don’t have social lives outside of this. It’s just great to be able to get out and spend time with friends.”

Volunteers started setting up Thursday afternoon and continued during the day Friday until the dance room was awash in Valentine's decorations.

For Carol Joan Daoussis-Perera and Paul Kerkis, Friday’s dance is the third in a row they have attended. Daoussis-Perera said she met Kerkis more than three years ago when she was out with a groupd of friends. They’ve been together ever since, she said.

“I was very lucky,” Daoussis-Perera said, smiling. “He lives in Laguna Woods and I’m in Mission Viejo, but we visit each other a lot.”

Three years and many visits later, the pair dressed Friday in complementary fire engine-red outfits.

Attendee Lena Fiorie sat with a large group of seniors who decided to accompany each other to the dance. At a table filled with residents of  and other Lake Forest communities, Fiorie said they had all been looking forward to spending the dance with friends.

“We don’t get to party much, so it’s fun,” she said.

Fiorie and others showed off their dance moves while the Silver Foxes played everything from the Village People's YMCA to slower songs to which couples swayed smoothly. The music reverberated through the Valentine’s Day-themed room, complete with pink and red tablecloths, hearts tacked to the walls, and candy at each table.

“Hearing the old songs and the music, that’s my favorite,” Fiorie said. “You can’t get this anywhere else.”