A performing arts studio in Airdrie has created a memorial award in honour of student Quinn Kerber, who passed away as a result of a tragic accident at her day home last year.
The young dancer was only five years old when she died in 2020, leaving behind her family and friends to cherish the memories of her vibrant spirit and love of dance.
Prior to her passing, Quinn was in the third year of her dance classes at Ambition Performing Arts, and was learning jazz, tap, and ballet dance. She was even awarded Dancer of the Month in September last year – the same month of her passing.
Since then, Tara Pickford, the founder of Ambition Performing Arts, said she worked alongside Kerber’s mother Amie and her family to develop the Love of Dance Award. Pickford added the company wanted to create an award that would evoke Quinn’s remembrance and offer a path forward for family, friends, and staff who were grieving the loss.
“She was taken far too soon,” Pickford said. “She was only five and she was just such a vibrant spirit in our studio. In the short couple of years that we had her as a student, she left such an impact on all of us.”
In selecting the first recipient of the award, according to Pickford, staff nominated students they felt exhibited the same characteristics as Quinn – joy, sensitivity, kindness, and a love for others.
But most of all, the nominees shared Quinn’s love of dance.
“We presented those nominations to the Kerber family without names and they selected the one that they felt most matched Quinn’s characteristics and love of dance,” Pickford said.
The Love of Dance Award was gifted to Quinn's classmate Charlotte Murley, who was also five years old at the time of Quinn’s passing. The award was presented to Marley at Ambition Performing Art’s Father’s Day recital at Nose Creek Regional Park on June 20.
Pickford said the Love of Dance Award will be awarded each year to a student between the ages of five and seven years old who demonstrates a love of dance and movement. The recipient will receive a custom-designed trophy and a family photo session to commemorate the event.
She added that local artist Lia Golemba created a commissioned design for the award, including Quinn’s favourite colour, “rainbow.” The custom design included a rainbow “dancing through the sky.”
“She did a great job,” Pickford said. “I told her a little bit about Quinn and the things that were special to [her] and so she designed a rainbow that was blowing and twirling and dancing through the sky [with] her favourite colour.”
After Quinn’s accident last year, she was transported to the Alberta Children’s Hospital in Calgary, where she spent her final days in the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU). According to a memorial page on the Alberta Children's Hospital website, a memorial fund was established as a way to give back to the hospital for their “hard work and dedication to caring for patients and families while in their most vulnerable state.”
Amie Kerber has also created a website to process the passing of her young daughter as well as commemorate her life at cultivatingquinn.com. She is selling both polymer rainbow pins – hand rolled by Amie, and detailed by Quinn’s father Matthias – and bracelets in memory of Quinn. According to the website, all proceeds are "donated to her memorial fund with love” in support of the PICU.
So far, Quinn’s family has raised $12,000 through Quinn’s Pins to support the PICU.
Anyone who would like to make a donation to Quinn’s memorial fund is encouraged to visit bit.ly/35Uclyi or go to cultivatingquinn.com to purchase a pin or bracelet in celebration of Quinn’s life.
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