**** 2012 - 2013 Cheer Parent (and cheerleader) Thread ****

[lillygator]

well we had our parent meeting last night....very interesting. I had to sign up for quite a bit of things.

What do you all do for fundraising? Also, I signed up to make goodie bags for the competitions...have you done that before? what are you putting in there?
Thanks!

[mommystieg]

Originally Posted by lillygator

Also, I signed up to make goodie bags for the competitions...have you done that before? what are you putting in there?
Thanks!

We usually put a bottle of water/Gatorade/Powerade, a non-sweet snack (pretzels, PB crackers, etc) some candy and maybe a litte trinket. Last season, we did the goody bags during December so we made ornaments using glass balls, curling ribbon in the team colors and painted each athlete's name on their ornament. We have also made keychains, picture frames and little gifts like that.

[goofy!]

Congrats to all that had successful evaluations and are the teams they hoped for!

Wishing everybody a great season!

DD is on the special needs team, so no evaluations. She is bummed though as with the new rule changes coming down the pipe that you can't use junior coaches as bases, she is being taken out of the air. We have lots of little ones, so they can't base her. We always had one base a special athlete and the other base a junior coach.

But this should be more fun as the routine will be 100% theirs.

My niece has a 5 year old stepdaughter that is interested in the Tiny team. So, I may get to be a cheer aunt again. My other niece (basically my other daughter as her mother is not in the picture) who cheered ended up with a level 3 curvature of the spine, so she is having back surgery and is out for the year.

Good luck everybody!

[goofy!]

Originally Posted by lillygator

well we had our parent meeting last night....very interesting. I had to sign up for quite a bit of things.

What do you all do for fundraising? Also, I signed up to make goodie bags for the competitions...have you done that before? what are you putting in there?
Thanks!

We have a parent's club that does fundraising. It is optional to join. They do everything from selling butter braids to working concessions at the major league baseball, football and lacrosse teams.

The most coveted fundraiser is working for GO Automotive. This is a huge car dealership with numerous locations and brands. Several times a year, they have a monstrous used car sale in the parking lot of our NFL stadium. But naturally they have to get the cars from the different dealerships to the stadium. That is where our parent club comes in. They provide the drivers while GO provides shuttle buses. You go to the dealership, get a car, drive it to the stadium, shuttle bus brings you back for another. Rinse, repeat. You earn $15.00 for every car you drive over. Then on Sunday evening, you do the reverse and get all the left over cars back to the dealerships. A weekend of driving usually nets somebody around $200 for their individual account.

Major league games concessions pay $50.00 a game.

As for goodie bags, our gym did away with them a couple of years ago. It became a problem because you had team moms that went completely overboard and then team moms that hardly did anything for the kids. There was a lot of problems with the disparity between teams. Now we have a "team gift" fee built into our monthly fees. The gym provides a team gift before major competitions. They have been really nice such as blinged out jackets and sweats, practice wear for Nationals, etc. Giving your team anything beside the team gift is strictly forbidden. It actually has worked out wonderfully because the kids get some really nice things each year and the team gift fee is not that high, not any worse than what we were donating previously.

[lillygator]

our booster club is mandatory and we have to raise $840 for competition fees, etc. This includes banquet tickets. We can help at the fundraisers (i.e. car wash ) and they divide the money up between the girls.

Since I have 2, I'm in for $1680!

[goofy!]

Originally Posted by lillygator

our booster club is mandatory and we have to raise $840 for competition fees, etc. This includes banquet tickets. We can help at the fundraisers (i.e. car wash ) and they divide the money up between the girls.

Since I have 2, I'm in for $1680!

That really stinks. I abhor fundraising, so I would be really upset if I was told that it was mandatory.

Our fees are all inclusive and then we pay a single monthly fee each month. If you want to fundraise to help ease the costs you can. If you want to just write a check each month, that is an option too. Although, we are responsible for our own travel fees.

A lot of kids here have been successful getting companies to sponsor them. If you get a sponsor, the gym will put it up on their website and also a t-shirt with all the sponsor names on it. Doctors and Dentists seem the most prone to hand over a $500.00 sponsorship around here.

Is your booster club a non-profit? If it is, many companies have sponsorships for their employees.

[lillygator]

yes, the booster is non-profit. The booster fees are in addition to the monthly fee and travel fees! They are working on a letter that we can send out to companies...I have already contaced a few, I figure it can't hurt, a $50 here and there...it all adds up.

[Jen414]

Our evaluations were Wednesday and Thursday of this week and teams were announced today at 5:00. My girls both made the Youth 2/3 team. They will decide in the fall in what division they will compete. I would love for some more girls to get tucks (my 2 have them) but I will be ok if they end up competing as a Y2 as they will be very successful at this level. As a Y1 this year, they came in first almost everywhere and now pretty much everyone can throw handsprings.

As for fundraising, our gym does several different catalog things, but our biggest fundraising is working at Gillette Stadium at Patriots games, Revolution games, and concerts. I did it last year a few times. It's a lot of work for what I don't consider to be a lot of money. You can do alright, but it's an all-day affair and I don't always feel like it's worth it. However, it helps out families who might not otherwise be able to afford cheer, so it is a good fundraiser. Fundraising is not mandatory. As someone else above posted, our gym also is a flat fee that includes everything except warm-ups, uniform, and travel fees. Our parent meeting is next week and that's when practices for the new year start.

[Donaldswife]

I am a new Cheer parent this year. My 10 DD tried out and will be on the Youth Level 2 team this year at the gym she has been taking tumbling at. She was on the competition POM team last year, so we are somewhat familiar with the competitions she will be attending, but cheer is a new sport for her. She almost has her back handspring right now, and the coach is confident she will have it by our first competition in November. She is also going to be on the Youth Level 2 Hip Hop dance team, so that means twice the uniform, comp fees, etc. for me. I know it will all be worth though, she had a great time competing in POM last year!

[Eeyores#1Fan]

Hi Everyone! I wasn't able to really chat much last season but I'm going to try and do better this season.

DD16 is on Sr Lv 4 and decided against school cheer this year. She's not your typical cheerleader because of her size but loves stunting which is the only reason she really cheers. Last year due to politics with school cheer and it not really being challenging (or fun) she decided against it this year as she's taking AP courses and trying to find a job.

DD11 is on Youth Lv 2 and Jr Lv 3. She just got her layout and whip so she's having a great summer so far.

Our competitions begin in Nov and we have 8 total. Gonna be another busy season.

Good luck to all those allstar, rec and school cheerleaders out there!!!!

[czycropper]

Hi everyone!

My DD decided to leave her Rec Comp team and do AllStar full year! She made the Sr Level 2 and is shooting to get into the Level 3 since she almost has her tuck, we'll see!

This week the gym is having a Stunt Camp with Pat Wedge and my DD is absolutely loving it even though she gets home completely exhausted

I'm going to really try and stay active on the board since I'm going to need advice from all you All Star Moms!

[polkadotminnie]

Anyone else watch that new show on TLC last night Cheer Perfection?

[woodkins]

Originally Posted by polkadotminnie

Anyone else watch that new show on TLC last night Cheer Perfection?

I'm going to say it was far from perfect. My dd9 is now on L4, but has cheered starting at L2...the obsession that these moms showed to get their kids on a youth2 team was pathetic, you would think they were trying out for World Cup Twinkles! The cheer skills shown were sub par at best and the coaching spoke for itself . I cannot imagine a gym where the parents are allowed onto the mat . What a disservice this show has done for the cheer industry!

[polkadotminnie]

Originally Posted by woodkins

I'm going to say it was far from perfect. My dd9 is now on L4, but has cheered starting at L2...the obsession that these moms showed to get their kids on a youth2 team was pathetic, you would think they were trying out for World Cup Twinkles! The cheer skills shown were sub par at best and the coaching spoke for itself . I cannot imagine a gym where the parents are allowed onto the mat . What a disservice this show has done for the cheer industry!

I was wondering if I was the only one who thought that. I totally agree.

[Family Fun Mom]

Originally Posted by woodkins

I'm going to say it was far from perfect. My dd9 is now on L4, but has cheered starting at L2...the obsession that these moms showed to get their kids on a youth2 team was pathetic, you would think they were trying out for World Cup Twinkles! The cheer skills shown were sub par at best and the coaching spoke for itself . I cannot imagine a gym where the parents are allowed onto the mat . What a disservice this show has done for the cheer industry!

I know! My daughter was shocked. She was like "what is that mom doing on the mat? Moms should never be on the mat!"

It was awful.