Albion Rotary honors Amy Sidari for community service, career running dance studio

Photo by Tom Rivers

ALBION – Don Bishop, Foundation director at the Albion Rotary Club, presents a Paul Harris Fellow award to Amy Sidari during the Rotary meeting last Thursday at the Tavern on the Ridge.

Photos courtesy of Marlene Seielstad: Amy Sidari stands with Albion Rotary Club President Tom Rivers.

The Paul Harris award is named for the founder of Rotary and is the club’s highest honor.

Sidari recently retired after 28 years as owner of the Gotta Dance by Miss Amy studio on West Bank Street. She has been a dance instructor in Albion for 38 years.

Rotary commended her for being a “dynamic force for good in Albion for the past four decades.” Gotta Dance has been a welcoming studio for people of all ages and abilities.

Sidari has used the dance studio to host many community fundraisers and events, including an annual Nicholas Kovaleski Hometown Christmas to support a scholarship in memory of Nicholas, who passed away from leukemia at age 15 in 2011. The Hometown Christmas shows raised more than $25,000 in scholarships which are given to Albion seniors who follow Nicholas’s mission of “Live with Purpose.”

Amy also puts on many shows with musicians and comedians at the Cabaret at Studio B. Those shows bring in many buses of people to Albion, providing entertainment and a needed spark for the downtown.

Sidari and her husband David have five children: Jillian, Kristin, Keith, Kyle and Gina. Amy and David also have three grandchildren: James, Jonah and Charlotte.

The Rotary Club also had the “changing of the guard” last week with a new president and officers sworn in for the 2025-26 year. Tom Rivers hands the gavel over to Dick Remley who will lead the organization the next year.

The club was busy the past year with community efforts, including the Albion Strawberry Festival, a golf tournament (with proceeds going to a transportation program at the Office for the Aging and clothing and readiness fund for the Job Development Agency). A St. Patrick’s ham dinner supported school supplies in a rural part of Honduras that were delivered by Tim Archer, advisor of the Interact Club in the school district.

The Rotary Club also completed a memorial for the 15 people who died in the Sept. 28, 1859 bridge collapse in Albion. That monument, completed by Brigden Memorials, is in Albion’s Canal Park.

The Rotary Club also welcomed many speakers throughout the year and the club contributed to other projects in the community.

Rotary last week also welcomed Michael Schmackpfeffer as a new member.