Please help me get Championship Rings
for our Hickman High School 2017 Kewpie Cheerleaders!
Ring presentationFeb 9, 2018 at Hickman between basketball games!
1st Kewpie Cheerleaders to earn the title of
First Place - Coed Large
Missouri Cheerleading Coaches Assoiciation
State Championship


See Gifts Made by Kewpie Alumni - Let me explain
Please help me fund Championship rings for our State Championship Cheerleaders!

Lauren Herschbach, Alison Kelly, Kristi Wilson, Brayden Dodds, Avery Gorden, Logan Hovis, Anna Byergo, A’nyia Osbourne,
Carlota Garcia, Nicole Jefferson, Lauren McDaniels, Equashan’e Spain, Sierra Calfee, Ava Butler, Radhika Samala, Zion Miller,
Madison Rowe, Kristin Kelly, Delanie Wiswall, Joshua Lewis, Emma Goodlet, Thomas Brown, and Savanna Armistead.

Coaches: Molly Lyman, Amber Chick (Kewpie Grad), and Kristen Myers

See pictures I have taken of the Cheerleaders from 2016 and 2017.
See Gifts Made by Kewpie Alumni
Please help me fund Championship rings for our State Championship Cheerleaders!
Let me explain
why I think this is the right thing to do to show our appreciation for
these great Kewpie Cheerleaders who are keepin' the Kewpie Spirit alive
and shoutin' about it throughout the entire school year!

 

Hello Kewpie Alumni,

First, let me say thank you for your support of www.kewpie.net since October 1998 as I just started my 20th year of providing “The Kewpie Gathering Place” for all classmates of Hickman High School. Since the beginning of www.kewpie.net you have helped me raise over $119,000.00 in gifts and donations for Hickman High School, I am overwhelmed by your support. We have $3,000.00 worth of annual endowed scholarships because of your generous support and those scholarships will be given for the 10th time to this graduating class in 2018.

I just think it’s fitting to start off the 20th year of www.kewpie.net with a project to honor the 2017 Missouri Cheerleading Coaches Association State Championship team for our “Kewpie Cheerleaders” being the 1st cheerleaders of our great high school to win a state championship!

Once again, I am asking for your serious consideration to help me with a project I am anxious to do for one of the most deserving groups of young people at Hickman High School I have encountered. The bottom line is I would like you to help me buy congratulatory rings for the Varsity Cheerleaders and their three coaches. This project is going to cost approximately $5,000.00 to $6,000.00 to purchase 26 rings and I am starting the donations with the first $500.00 to get us started and make this happen. Now I will explain why this is important to me and my reasons for asking you to help support this project.

On December 15, 2015, I asked BAM Mascots for a quote on two Kewpie Mascot Costumes. After long deliberation and work with six companies through much consultation and with Molly & John Lyman (Hickman Cheer Coach and her husband John who wore “Truman the Tiger” at MU), the costumes were purchased with the 10K you helped raise and put into use on May 22, 2016 at the Graduation Ceremony of the Class of 2016. These mascots have set Hickman High School apart from any of our competition. Thanks for making that happen with your donations!

Right after the 2016 graduation, I started volunteering my time taking pictures for Molly’s Kewpie Cheerleaders as I have been doing ever since. I take pictures at tryouts, training camps, regional competitions, Kewpie Football and Basketball games, other special cheerleading events, dinners with the cheerleaders at coach’s house with her family, and state competitions. I even get to ride the school bus to some out of town ball games…, what a way to go for an ol’ 72-year-old photographer wannabe…! And then at the end of the cheer season, which is an all year season, I provide a webpage video slideshow for the Cheer Team at their banquet. And many of the cheerleaders are from generations of Kewpie Alumni families and some assistant coaches are past Kewpie cheerleaders!

If you were a CHEERLEADER or had a daughter or son who has been a high school cheerleader, you need no explanation of the sacrifices made by cheerleaders and their families. For those of you who, like me, had no knowledge of what is involved being a high school cheerleader, I will share some of the things I have learned over the last two years of being with this great “Kewpie Family of Cheerleaders” and why I want to do something for the true bloodline of the our “Kewpie Spirit”!

I want you to understand the structure of what’s involved and why I think that this group of young people who, as I see it, bend over backwards, frontwards and jump up and down to represent the greatest high school on the planet, deserve a special reward for bringing a championship honor to Hickman High School. I asked Kewpie Cheerleader Coach Molly Lyman to give me the details, the best she could, of what is involved and expected of every cheerleader at Hickman High School. The following is a list that Molly provided me.

1. The Cheer season is truly year-round. Cheer tryouts are in April and the season goes until basketball ends in late February/early March.

2. Cheer team has 23 on Varsity and 12 on JV with 3 coaches.

3. Cheer Athletes are required to be at all practices and all games.

4. Normal practices are two days a week for a total of 4 hours. That equals out to 172 hours of practice per athlete for the season.

5. In addition to that, Competition practices are 5 days a week for a total of 12.5 hours per week for 7 weeks. That is 87.5 hours of practice and each athlete has to be present.

6. There are at least 10 football games a year (depending on post season play) where each athlete spends a minimum of 4 hours at each game between pregame, game time, and clean up.

7. Basketball games are dependent on a “home year” or an “away year”. There are on average 14 games per year (not including post season). Since we cover both girls and boys basketball, cheer athletes are required to be at the game for a minimum of 4 hours (to cover JV and Varsity basketball games).

8. This does not include time on a bus to games outside of Columbia. Since most post season or away games are in KC or STL, these rides are about 4 total hours.

9. A new cheerleader spends $308 on game/practice wear. They also purchase 2 shirts to wear for regionals and state. They total about $35. This doesn’t include the money parents pay to watch their kids cheer at two sports and compete at two competitions (one which is out of town). Due to the time constraints, many cheerleaders can only work a part time job or babysit on the weekends. Cheerleading is a very expensive sport. Many of them help pay their own Cheer bill which includes items they need to wear throughout the year and camp and choreography costs. (Shoes, poms, briefs, bag midriff, warm ups, etc) The things they are buying aren’t required for other sports. There are many fundraising opportunities for athletes to help cover these costs. Cost is the biggest issue.

10. As for food for the cheerleaders….we feed them every away game and team dinners are held right before they compete. In a season there are 10 to 14 meals. We set up a signup genius and parents sign up for things to bring. In the past, I coordinated it all. This year, a parent helped.

11. Hickman just won its FIRST STATE CHAMPIONSHIP in Cheer on 10/28/2017. Athletes are hoping to purchase State Championship rings. Coaches have tried to find a cost that is affordable, but know many can't afford a ring because of the amount they have already paid to be a member of the Cheer squad, be the face of Kewpie Spirit, and represent the Kewpies with pride. We are trying to find any help we can.

These Kewpies who represent the “Kewpie Spirit” throughout the entire school year and just honored our alma mater with a State Championship Title for the first time in Kewpie history, I think, are most deserving of receiving a State Championship ring and hope that you agree and support me on this project.

Please send a check made payable to me, Charley Blackmore, or click here to give a non-tax-deductible gift to help purchase these rings…. The rings will be purchased from Jostens, the Class Ring company at around $200.00 per ring, for a total estimated amount of $5,200.00. Any money that can be collected which isn’t needed for the purchase of rings will go into the expense budget for cheerleaders’ uniforms, etc. Thank you for you consideration!

 

Please help me buy rings for the 2017 State Championship Kewpie Cheerleaders!
Mail check made payable to Charley Blackmore to:
Charley Blackmore
2312 Deer Creek Ct
Columbia MO 65201-3564
for details or questions call me between noon & midnight at 573-808-5314 or text. I am also emailable at charley@kewpie.net.

You can also make a gift donation with a credit card
through PayPal by clicking on
Your gift donation will be sincerely appreciated by me and the
2017 Kewpie Cheerleaders but is not a tax-deductable donation.
Thanks!!!!!

 

 

 

 

Hickman Varsity Cheer Ring Ceremony!!!

Friday February 9, 2018

Pre Game Cake and Punch Reception

5:30 Commons

 Team Will Receive Rings Between Games

Come Celebrate Our Cheerleaders' 

 State Championship win!!

 

Inline image 1

 

Give a gift to help the cheerleaders with expenses!

$5,235.00 raised so far. Please help if you can, thanks.

Kewpies who have graciously support our Champs!

Back to kewpie.net

Give a gift to help the cheerleaders with expenses