Elementary school cheer team raising money for uniforms, equipment

(Pioneer Cheerleaders Featured on Fox 10 News)

PHOENIX (FOX 10) A Valley elementary school’s cheer team is trying to raise money for uniforms and equipment. The goal is relatively small, but for these elementary school girls, it could make a world of difference.

The Pioneer Preparatory School had a cheer team several years ago and now, they’re working to bring it back to give these girls an opportunity to get involved and have something to look forward to. Unfortunately, due to a lack of school funds, the squad can’t be complete.

The cheerleaders at Pioneer Preparatory are full of pep, they have their dance moves and cheers down and they’re full of spirit. But the squad is missing a few cheer essentials: they have no uniforms and very few pom poms.

“We’ve had such a big interested in [the cheer team] that we’ve had so many new kids joining all of the time,” said cheer coach Nicole Norman. “Right now, we have about one pom per girl.”

Coach Norman says the team was recently started back up after about nine years. The goal was to give the students another opportunity to join a team and be part of a group.

“A lot of these kids have never been involved in a club before,” Norman said. “And this is something that’s really motivating them to do well in school [and to] keep their grades up to be able to do this club.”

The coaches are trying to keep the cost down as much as possible so money is never a deterrent for participation.

“We’re about 97–98 percent free lunches here, and we’ve done fundraisers,” said Norman.

Unfortunately, those fundraisers never raise enough money. The team has now turned to GoFundMe for a little help. The coaches are hoping for donations to buy uniforms to give the girls

“It would feel great because I’ll [feel like] I’m in a cheerleading competition with everyone,” one cheerleader said.

“I feel like it would make us feel like we’re an official cheerleading team,” said another cheerleader.

The team has a GoFundMe set up to assist with uniform and equipment costs.

Check out the full story by clicking the link: Elementary school cheer team raising money for uniforms, equipment.