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10 THE SHEPHERD • MARCH 2026 • SAINT SPYRIDON GREEK ORTHODOX CHURCH OF SAN DIEGO DANCE & CHORAL FDF PREVIEW JANUARY 31, 2026 The start of the new year is the busiest time for the St. Spyridon Dance and Cho- ral School. On January 31st we presented our FDF Preview Glendi in the St. Spyridon Church Hall. We decided to change our usual FDF preview repertoire this year and make it an evening dinner event with a full glendi and two live bands. It was a packed house, one of the most well-attended events in recent history with nearly 300 joyful rev- elers! In addition to a delicious homemade dinner cooked by Pashalis Koutzmbis, An- dreas Capetanakis, and Gus & Vicky Mel- los , we had an extraordinary dessert selec- tion handcrafted by Joanna Stathorakis. The Stathorakis family were generous donors at the event, providing us with our house wine and Joanna worked tirelessly to obtain priz- es, donations and décor for the event. Our goal was to make this event accessible to all, and we were able to do this by keep- ing the ticket price incredibly reasonable, but we could only do so with the generous sup- port of some amazing donors. Our sincerest gratitude to the following organizations and individuals who helped to underwrite our event: the Anthousa Chapter of St. Spyridon Philoptochos who underwrote the bands and gave enough to cover some of our ad- ditional costume costs this year. Litsa Pre- ovolos, Jeannie Ranglas, Joanna Stathor- akis, and the St. Spyridon Bookstore whose generous donations helped cover costs of the event. We also want to thank Konstantino Manolis , our outstanding photographer, and Nektarios Tradas for his audio and tech support. A tight team of parents and other volunteers also stepped forward to help at all hours before, during and after the event. Thank you to all of you and may God bless you and your families for helping to provide such a beautiful and meaningful event to our church and our families. If you’d like to order photos from Konstantinos Manolis, he has graciously offered to donate a portion of the proceeds from the event, back to our Dance and Choral School. Please visit https:// frameandstyle.pixieset.com/saintspyridon greekorthodoxchurchsandiegophotosby konstantinosmanolis/