Stacey Adidou has had a love of the arts for as long as she can remember. The executive assistant to the vice president of Design Construction and Space Management studied dance as a child and dreamed of becoming a Rockette at Radio City Music Hall in New York.

“I wasn’t tall enough,” she says with a sigh. “They actually do have height requirements.”

But Stacey didn’t let that stop her. She has found a way to incorporate what she loves into nearly everything she does.

Discovering Her Talent

Stacey grew up in a musical family. Her late father, Randy Vater, performed in a local band called “Hi Tension” that was popular starting in the latter part of the ’60s. The group was a fixture at many Northern Kentucky nightspots for years.

“They would practice in our basement, so I was surrounded by music all the time,” she says.

One of her dad’s bandmates was the son of Rosemarion Thompson, a dance instructor, who became Stacey’s teacher.

Stacey recalls, “My mother died when I was 6 years old, and there wasn’t much money for extras. Rosemarion knew our situation and gave me a scholarship.”

It wasn’t until high school that Stacey realized she could sing, as well as dance. This discovery opened up other performing opportunities that allowed her to hone her craft.

But the practicalities of life steered Stacey toward a career that would provide a steadier schedule and income for her family. She became a teacher, though she still managed to incorporate her love of music and dance as an assistant choral director, cheerleading coach, and director of a dance team. Then, after she joined Cincinnati Children’s 21 years ago, she found new outlets for her talents—singing, dancing and choreographing her teammates’ moves during the Cincinnati Children’s Choir Games, which were a staple of the medical center’s ArtsWave campaign for roughly a decade.

“The first time we competed, we were told we had 10 minutes,” says Stacey. “We didn’t know if we were supposed to fill all 10 minutes or just do one little thing. On our team, we had so many people with different abilities and tastes. I thought it was important that everyone had a chance to shine. So that’s how we came up with the idea of doing medleys.”

One year, they developed a storyline about the team working for a malfunctioning music streaming service, so they each had to impersonate different artists, like Elvis and Britney Spears. Another year, they did a tribute to disco that included carrying a large cardboard cutout of a car on stage while they sang “Carwash.”

They did so well that they represented Cincinnati Children’s at the CincySings competition several times.

“We had so much fun performing,” says Stacey. “Our people work in such a serious environment, taking care of sick kids. It’s wearing. During the Choir Games, I loved that we could get together for 30 minutes and be light-hearted. I always felt like, if I could entertain folks and make them forget about the stress and sadness, even for a short while, then that’s what I’m going for.”

Stacey has also contributed her skills to a video that the Protective Services team did as part of a social media challenge to police departments across the country. “Can’t Stop the Healing,” a lip-sync video created with the help of Cincinnati Children’s Marketing and Communications Department, featured our security officers, patients, families, and other staff dancing to a medley of tunes with lyrics adapted to fit our mission. Stacey choreographed and taught the moves that were performed at various locations throughout the Burnet, Liberty and College Hill campuses.

The video got 33,000 views in less than two hours after it was posted on social media and ultimately went viral.