A 'Night of Stars' for Lindy All-Stars Cheerleaders

It seems that in recent years cheerleading has gone from being seen as simply a "rah-rah" activity with some cute couture to being increasingly recognized as a challenging sport requiring rigorous athletic skills.

However, when it came time for the Lindy All-Stars cheerleaders to put together a recent fundraiser for their team at the Knights of Columbus-OLPH Council hall, they went back to a tried-and-true mainstay of the sport they share - glamour.

And the pulled out all of the stops last night, put together a shimmering fashion show to a sold-out Lindenhurst crowd.

“We’re all about the Pink and the Bling!” said Kim Gallagher, head of the Lindy All-Star Cheerleaders - referring to the group‘s pink, black and silver signature colors.

According to Gallagher, who founded the organization five years ago, the All-Stars have more than doubled their roster - to 63 total - this year, with the addition of a mini-team. That brings the program for 11 to 16-year-olds now down to age six as a starting point.

With only a limited number of slots on the in the Schools system, the Lindy All-Stars offers a wider array of young women in the community a chance to participate in the sport.

The team got its start after Gallagher's daughter started at New York Cheer All Stars cheer gym in Deer Park.

“She loved it,” she said. “I wanted to give kids here in Lindenhurst a chance to experience that.”

The All-Stars is a select team, which means that Gallagher goes around to cheer programs in the region, and chooses girls for the squad.

“I don’t think kids should have to go through a selection audition,” she said. “So I go around looking for young girls who have skill and talent.”

Participants practice twice a week, and participate in five or six competitions a year.

(Click here for a look at the team in action on YouTube. It shows the team's Junior Rec Level Three, first-place win and Rec Level Three Grand Champs win at the Battle at the Boardwalk Nationals, February 5, 2011.)

There’s also the U.S. Championships competition, with a number of regional competitions. In 2011 the All-Stars garnered a third-place finish in the country.

It’s for the chance to attend and compete in those competitions once again this year that the event, dubbed “A Night of Stars," was held.

The evening included dinner, catered by Phil Castro, executive chef of the Seawane Club in Hewlett, plus a Chinese auction, featuring everything from a Kindle Fire and a 30-inch, flat-screen TV to wine-tasting tours, a day of paint ball and 1,500 sqare feet of driveway seal coating.

And to prove that the title "A Night of Stars” was all that, the centerpiece of the evening was a 45-minute fashion show, put on by the All-Stars kids themselves.

A runway in the middle of the KofC hall on South Broadway provided the platform for the Lindy All-Stars 2012 to strike a pose as the flashbulbs flashed and the crowd cheered - all while modeling fashions provided by La Chic Boutique of Seaford, of Farmingdale and in Massapequa Park.

Take a look at the highlights of the event, and feel free to your own by clicking the upload button.