Another argument in the fight against harmful stereotypes about cheerleading.
I may not have done anything big, but I still think that shipping uniforms to Botswana Cheerleading Federation was a pretty good idea. I will not cease to be grateful to the coaches by the huge "C" at the begining: Agnieszka Tarkowska, Katarzyna Gździe-Suchanek and Lidia Stefańska. Without them, the whole action would not have happened.
This post will be about charity as well as socially useful activities in cheerleading. We already know that cheerleading means cheering and supporting your own team during the game. It may be new to some of you, but this support extends a bit further than the stands, because cheerleading teams' DNA is to actively participate in the life of their community, which are the cities, schools, and other organizations they work with.
Moreover, in Angela King-Twitero's book "The Business of Professional Cheerleading" you can read that participation in charity actions is obligatory. The rules of this obligation depend on the club, nevertheless it is an important part of the contract[1]. You can raise the argument of "promoting" the club on someone else's misfortune, but my position is that, first of all, people / institutions that help others give an example of the so-called "also you can do it", and second, regardless of the motivation, they help.
Referring to the last Cheer News on Coffee, two cheerleaders from the Colts team showed quite spectacular support for leukemia research, by shaving their hair during a match in 2012, after collecting $ 20,000 for research on leukemia. The whole initiative was caused by the team coach's illness[2]. You will admit that in a profession / hobby where there is (also) a lot of emphasis on appearance, getting rid of hair is a lot of courage. Especially when most of my friends have them long, lush and for a better effect, additionally thickened, about what you can read in the above-mentioned book, as well as in "Audition Secrets (...)" by Flavia Berys[3].
It is very important to know that there are Cheer Organizations that deal with helping people who have faced difficult life challenges. One of them is the Cheer For Life Foundation, which has been operating in San Francisco since 1980. Their team is the official San Francisco team and you can watch them performing at many sports and cultural events. It is also the first cheer organization in the US to be identified as supporting LGBTQ + people.
The Pride Cheerleading Association also supports the LGBTQ + community in tough times. This team performs at sports and cultural events to show strong support for LGBTQ + people. A large article as well as the profiles of 5 cheerleaders was published by SHAPE magazine. This is pretty good news, as it proves that cheerleading and its strength are breaking through to the so-called mainstream.
It's worth taking a look at these pages to find out that sometimes it's enough not to exclude someone to give them confidence, which in turn improves their quality of life. So little, so much ... right? In addition, Cheer Salt Lake, apart from activities for the LGBTQ + community, began to help people who became homeless due to the pandemic.
PINKTOBER! Who among you has not heard about this action? October is internationally recognized as the month of the fight as well as increasing awareness related to breast cancer. Did you know that 1 in 8 women has breast cancer? The cheerleading initiative related to Pinktober is iCheerPink. The main role of which is education and help in collecting funds.
And the icing on the cake. Dallas Cowboys Pinktober performance (photo link). The video is less than 10 minutes long and is definitely worth watching. Not only because of the unusual show and its spectacular ending, but also the people who won the fight against cancer are worth listening to. The world-famous Varsity is also involved in charity work related to cancer and other diseases that do not hold any hope of recovery. To help the children's hospital of St. Jude, there are over 200 teams that organize mini camps during which they raise funds. Over a million USD has been raised so far! It makes an impression!
If you need to raise funds for your team, I leave you a link with some LINK ideas
[1]A. King-Twitero, The Business of Professional Cheerleading" str.51-53,BookSurge Publishing, 2004
[2]https://www.thestar.com/sports/football/2012/11/26/colts_cheerleaders_shave_their_heads_to_raise_funds_for_leukemia_research.html.
[3]F. Berys "Audition Secrets, How to become an Arena Cheerleader for NFL, NBA and Other Pro Cheer Teams", 2013, CabriMedia
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