One of the fundraisers the Spirit Team does for themselves is the Dee-Mack Cheer Camp! For quite a while now, grades Pre-K through 8th grade are given the opportunity to be a part of the blackout night halftime performance at the football game. This is done not only to raise money for the team, but also as a way to be involved with the community! Coach Fry is very new to this time of year with the team and when she was asked what she was excited to see as a coach who hadn’t done this before, she explained that she was looking forward to seeing the excitement on everyone’s faces, and the good interactions between everyone there.
This camp is just a fun little thing for the kids to do but there are a lot of other things that go into it, for example the cheerleaders create the dance and a few cheers for them to learn. They go into this hoping that everyone is able to learn, but they do update it as they go. There were also forms posted for the parents to sign up and order a blackout shirt for this game, even though they were due that Wednesday before the camp on Saturday, they were still able to sign up the day of as well.
As for the camp itself, it runs pretty smoothly: all the girls are divided up by age and then get started with some warm-ups. A few of the high school girls go with each group and teach them their age level cheer. Then, after lots of potty breaks and distractions they finally come back together to learn the dance. There’s quite a few kids who have done this multiple times and pretty much know exactly what to do. When asked why they put their daughters in the camp parents said things like “Because the cheerleaders are great with them.” and “I did it as a little girl and now it’s her turn.”
This whole experience is a big deal for everyone involved. The little kids all love and look forward to going each year, and the high-schoolers enjoy getting to spend time and encourage the young minds! So next time you see the little cheerleaders on the field make sure to cheer extra loud for them, it takes a lot of courage to get out there and they make it look effortless every time!