EPHRATA - Sharon was a single mom looking for something new to do with her two children when she decided to try square dancing.

When her husband passed away the family was living in a rural area and the kids were home schooled, meaning they had little outside contact besides church on Sunday. So the trio trekked to Ephrata and started taking square dance lessons through the Wheatland Whirlers, a club that celebrates its 60th anniversary this coming April.

"There are a lot of things I couldn't bring my kids to and, as a single adult, where do you go, what do you do?" Sharon says. "Square dancing provides a comfortable setting to mingle and kids can go with you."

Dave was a single dad introducing his own two kids to square dancing, something he says he first started doing with his parents when he was 9 years old.

"He was there with his kids, I was there with my two children and that's how we met," Sharon says. "He was my angel."

An "angel," she explains, isn't just a sweet way of saying "husband to be." In square dancing parlance, it's an experienced dancer who is paired up with a newbie, guiding them through the learning process.

"You just grab a stranger and get in the square with them," she says.

Soon enough the two were married and, 15 years later, they're members of the 4x8s, a square dancing club in Moses Lake celebrating it's own 60th anniversary next month.

When asked what it was about Sharon that initially caught his eye, Dave chuckles.

"She was closer to my age," he laughs. "When I got involved with square dancing here in the area, it was a lot of grandmothers and granddaughters. Since then the target demographic has increased and we do have a lot more people in their 30s, 40s and 50s coming out, which is a lot different than it was 15 or 20 years ago."

On Saturday the couple was front-and-center at the Wheatland Whirlers annual Sweetheart Dance in Ephrata, where they each played an integral part.

"When he proposed to her, he did it at our dance so it's been a tradition for us to always get them to call and cue for us as close to Valentine's Day as possible," says Wheatland Whirlers club President Judy Schock. She explains callers are the ones who direct the square dancing while cuers direct "round dances," such as waltzes and two-steps.

The Boggs aren't the only couple who met on the dance floor, Schock says, pointing to Bob Yearout, the Wheatland Whirlers' regular club caller who met his wife, Marty, through square dancing in 2003.

"I was teaching a square dancing class and she came out to learn," Yearout says. "I was the instructor for the square but she wanted to learn how to round dance as well, so I was her partner for that and we just got interested. She was single and so was I and one thing just led to another."

After about a year of dating the couple tied the knot, and were manning the ticket table together at the entrance to Saturday's dance.

The 82-year-old Yearout says he's been a member of the Ephrata club for about a dozen years and was previously a member of the 4x8s in Moses Lake, although square dancing is something he's been doing off and on since he was 8 years old.

"I started with my parents back when it was typical for families to go square dancing," he says. "I was interrupted by military service and so forth, but then I got back into it when I retired out of the Army and moved back to Moses Lake. I had to go back to class and learn it all over again because it was different than what it used to be."

While many things have changed about square dancing over the years - piping music from a laptop and amplifier instead of putting the needle down on a record, for instance - Sharon says the tradition still provides a fun, healthy way for families to bond.

"The way computers are now, people are becoming couch potatoes," she said. "(Square dancing) opens the door for kids to do activities that are healthy and provides a social connection with kids and adults. We segregate the kids these days to the point they don't know how to carry on a conversation with adults, so this kind of opens up a little bit of that contact."

Dave, who is now the regular club caller for the 4x8s, says the club has seen a recent surge in the involvement of young people and families. Of the 18 people who graduated two weeks ago from the club's six month lessons course, Dave says 10 were age 17 and younger.

"We are seeing a lot more families and younger adults coming out, I think, because we're using more updated music and we don't have restrictions on square dance attire that we used to," he says. "You don't have to wear the flowing dresses and dress attire that was mandatory 20 years ago. It's welcome, but optional."

The official dance of Washington state will get a big boost of recognition this June when the National Square Dancing Convention descends on Spokane, Dave says.

"We're hoping for 5,000 to 8,000 dancers from all over the globe," he says. "It's a quite a big thing."

For more information on the Wheatland Whirlers club, contact Judy Schock at 509-754-4803 or email jschock@homenetnw.net.

For more information on the 4x8s, contact club co-presidents Del and Jackie Chase at 509-764-4254.