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SNOHOMISH — The West Coast Country Heat dance team has taken national awards, put grins on faces at parades across this county and wowed crowds.
But this is the first time they’ve been invited to be part of anything like this.
The Country Heat have been selected to perform at the international D-Day Memorial commemorative events in France in June 2025.
Next year’s events recognize the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II; the parade runs down Sainte-Mère-Église, France, one of the first towns to be liberated by the Allied airborne landings in the Normandy region.
The sizzling team from Snohomish County are currently in “full fundraising mode” trying to raise $90,000 to help pay to get the 30 dancers to France.
The group’s next big fundraiser will be Saturday, July 6 in the evening at the Mule Palace, 19920 43rd Ave. NE in Arlington. Admission is $10.
The Heat’s founder, owner and leader Jen Workman was floored they got this invite. The team was struck by disbelief, then awe.
“It’s once-in-a-lifetime,” she said.
The dancers will be shuttled to multiple stops in the Normandy area to perform for audiences, Workman said.
The members are everyday people who put on their boots, shimmy in their bright blue shirts and get scooting to the parade line, but is it work if you’re having fun?
The oldest members are in their 60s and 70s. There’s a former Seattle Seahawks “Seagal” in her 50s who still does the splits.
“You’ve got all ages, all sizes,” and at parades, “people see this and say ‘I can do that,’” Workman said.
For more than 25 years from her home in Machias, she’s been keeping up a world-class team.
A couple of years ago, they began competing. In 2022, they took Worlds in the United Country Western Dance Council championships, a huge tip of the hat. They followed up with a Nationals title in country dancing in 2023.
For Workman, celebrating the American Armed Forces is a deep honor.
Generations of her family served, “so it’s kind of a big deal,” she said.
Her daughter just entered the Army and her nephew’s in the Navy.
The Heat has an annual circuit of parades, including last weekend’s Marysville Strawberry Festival. You can see ‘em in Snohomish’s Kla Ha Ya Days parade this July 20 and the Monroe Fair Days Parade a month later. Their full schedule of parades is on the “West Coast Country Heat” Facebook page.
