After you hear about this nominee for the Clogging Hall of Fame, you’ll ask yourself, “Can we have her?” or “Where can we get one like her?”. It’s people like her that have enabled organizations like this to flourish, always behind the scenes allowing all of us to shine. Throughout her life she’s always been dancing; tap dancing, square dancing and even dancing on roller skates, but ironically never clogged. This person became involved in clogging through her children and grandchildren. It all started in 1988 when she found an advertisement in the paper for clogging lessons and thought that her granddaughter would like to participate. This person supported, transported, encouraged and cheered on the family members, while they learned the steps to try out; eventually getting accepted on Clogg Happy Cloggers out of Eagle Lake with Rosita Martin. This person made competition outfits for her granddaughters and other family members. At the time she had her own business called “Me and Ma” where she designed and sold square dance clothing. She helped cloggers get slips and petty pants at her cost.
She became even more involved when the family members joined the Dixie Express Cloggers with Malinda Bittenger. She became very busy making team uniforms and designing costumes for the entire team for show routines, such as: poodle skirts for a fifties show routine, satin jumpsuits with jackets and ruffles for a margarita show, Y2K – bug outfits, The Wizard of Oz, from Toto to the mayor of Munchkin City, bar maids and leprechauns; if there weren’t any patterns she made them. She has spent countless hours of her time searching for material, measuring team members and sewing. She puts her heart and soul into everything for the clogging team and sometimes even some blood when she would prick her fingers while making costumes throughout the years. We have even seen her break out in a rash from the material that she was working with for long periods of time. She always made sure each person had everything they needed making garment bags and clogging shoe bags for everyone. She has taken a lot of pride in the quality of her work; and thus, expecting you to show up with a clean and ironed uniform.
Many of the parents could not attend out-of-city conventions or compitions, so she would have a room full of children that she kept an eye on for a weekend. This also meant that she was in charge of hair, makeup and lost and found. You could survive the weekend out of her purse, for if you needed it she had it; the Band-Aids, tape, pins, needles and aspirin. The State Fair competition would sometimes run late into the night and even when we had to be back early the next day, she was always there with us.
After the Dixie Express Team broke up, she tried to keep a few of the team members together by making and giving out flyers to promote beginning clogging. She encouraged everyone to form a new team; hence, we became the Green Swamp Stompers. She volunteered to go to City Hall every Tuesday and pick up the key to the community center where we practiced, and then returned it the next morning. She arranges clogging engagements, collects dues, keeps the books balanced and organized, makes phone calls, makes and hands out maps, organizes the calendar, decorates floats, organizes parties, makes raffle baskets, types articles for newsletters, and embroiders T-shirts for everyone.
She supports FCC by helping out any where she can. You can find her at the door collecting money and accepting memberships, auditing the books, donating raffle baskets, embroidering and donating FCC board member shirts, and baking for clinics. She has been a dedicated FCC member sense 1989 and is still going strong.
Please accept the Green Swamp Stompers nomination for Maureen Wood, a hard working and dedicated person to the clogging community, to be accepted in to the FCC clogging hall of fame.
