You’ve heard about cheerleading from your friends, siblings, and classmates. It seems like it would be fun, but you aren’t sure that you’re ready to fully dive into cheering without trying it out first. You just want a single night where you can learn some basic cheers and meet the team, and maybe even perform at halftime. Some students ages 5-14 face this very issue, especially in the winter when football season has ended, and local cheer options dwindle.
Now, for the first time, WA’s winter cheer program is offering a new experience: a fundraiser that allows younger students to become cheerleaders for a night.
The fundraiser is for anyone in grades K-8 who wants to try cheer without completely committing to it. It takes place on Friday, Jan. 30, from 5:00 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. at Westford Academy. Students between the ages of 5-14 who are hoping to participate can register on the cheer team’s Instagram, wacheerghosts.
The $60 registration fee includes a T-shirt and bow. Those who have registered will also cheer courtside with WA cheerleaders for the first half of the Jan. 30 basketball game in addition to participating in the halftime performance. The money raised will help support the cheer team, providing funds for equipment and team activity fees.
Although WA has hosted interactive cheer clinics in the past, this is the first year that a fundraiser like this one has been put into effect.
“[The cheer team is] thinking about doing the cheer clinics again this year, but we thought that [being a] cheerleader for a night [is] more exciting in the sense [that participants] get to cheer at a WA basketball game [and] be a part of the half time [performance],” WA cheer coach Nina Feliciano said.
The fundraiser is also an opportunity for seasoned cheerleaders to showcase their skills and teaching abilities.
“I’m really excited [for the fundraiser] because it means that I get to meet a lot of [kids] and I get to help them have fun with cheerleading,” freshman cheerleader Raeden Veino said.
Anticipation for the fundraiser has already spread to one of Westford’s middle schools. Feliciano, who works as a seventh-grade teacher at Stony Brook Middle School, found that some of her students are excited to try cheering.
“Even if you don’t end up [joining] the team [in the future] and you just come to try [it] out, it’s really fun,” freshman cheerleader Sadie Brooks said. “The more people we have, the better [the fundraiser] is.”
