Featured Story - March 2006

Aurora Torres Hansen & Commissioner Proctor

On behalf of VolunteerLEON Youth Corps, Commissioner Bill Proctor presented to the 3rd Annual Leon County DREAM Award to Mrs. Aurora Hansen. DREAM is an acronym, standing for Diversity, Reflection, Education, Arts and Multi-generational. The DREAM award is presented to an individual who best represents the principles of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. including but not limited to diversity, non-violence, civil rights, leadership, and/or goodwill towards people. Mrs. Hansen’s daily life greatly reflects the values and ethics of Dr. King.

Mrs. Aurora Hansen is a native of the Philippines, where she began her work to become an accomplished dancer. Her training led her to live in various places across the United States and in London; included in her long list of accomplishments, is dancing for Presidents Kennedy and Nixon. She also used her expertise to teach twenty inner-city eight year olds at the Harlem Dance Theatre in New York for six weeks over one summer.
She moved to Tallahassee in 1990, where she quickly became involved with the Filipino community, and the Big Bend community at large. She has worked with Indak Pilipino, a folkloric dance troupe of the Filipino Student Association at FSU, and with the Women’s Dance Project. She sits on the board of the Sickle Cell Foundation, and of the Cultural Resource Center. Mrs. Hansen has also assisted with the Pangaea celebration at Rickards High School, and has worked at the Palmer Munroe Community Center. Currently, she works at the Lawrence Gregory Community Center.

Mrs. Hansen was nominated for the DREAM Award by Patrice Lyons, a senior at Rickards High School and Youth Corps Leadership Council Representative. Patrice said that she wanted to honor Mrs. Hansen because she: “is really a wonderful person, I first met her when I was 11 taking my first dance lessons from her. She's always full of energy and is fully dedicated to whatever she happens to be doing at the moment. She is very active in the Filipino community, valuing and not forgetting her own culture, while at the same time working with Unity in the Community every year and showing an appreciation for the many other cultures represented in our country."

Dr. King once reminded his audience that, “Life’s most urgent question is: What are you doing for others?” It is clear that in the case of Aurora Hansen, the answer is that she daily goes above and beyond to help make our community a better place. It is because of this hard work, dedication, and love that she has been awarded the 2006 DREAM Award.