LINCOLNVILLE — Since the age of 6, Wesley Henderson, of Lincolnville, has been working hard to be a dancer. At that young age, he had his sights set on big goals. He started out in ballet, but gravitated more to hip hop when he began training at Studio Red in Rockland. At 8, he was starting to lose interest in what they were learning at his age range, so he began taking teen level classes as well. “So, that’s when I started getting a little more forward in my dancing career,” he said.

Today, at 12, it might seem cute that he used the word “career,” but in fact, this kid has fast tracked into a legitimate professional career as he prepares to travel to Los Angeles this July to participate in the prestigious Hollywood Summer Tour. After performing in a regional competition in Portland with his Studio Red dance troupe, Wesley was awarded one of five $500 scholarships to the Tour, beating out hundreds of dancers with more than 550 dancing competitions.

This week-long invitation-only dance workshop includes multiple dance classes in all genres of dance with some of the biggest names in the commercial dance world, including some who have appeared on the hit show So You Think You Can Dance.

And while the scholarship win was good, there was one other thing holding him back: $500 wasn’t going to get his mother and him to California for a week, so Wesley set his mind on a new goal — to raise $4,500 (which doesn’t include airfare) to stay for a week.

“In my family, I’m always the one to want to do something even if it is a super hard thing to do. I knew it was a lot of money,” he said. So, the family started a GoFundMe page, along with several in-person fundraisers he has done locally around town. His last few fundraisers have raised more than $200 and his GoFundMe page has already crept to nearly $3,000 in a month.

“I’ve never been on a plane before, and I’ve never been so excited in my life,” he said.

Stay tuned as Penobscot Bay Pilot tracks his progress.

Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com