Delaware County Competitive Cheer Team To Hold April Fundraising Events To Reach "The Summit"

The Delaware County, PA competitive cheer team of Team Excel has been granted an at-large bid to compete at The Summit, a varsity All Star cheerleading competition being held April 29-May 1 in Orlando, FL. The Summit, organized by Varsity All Star, is an elite cheerleading competition where only 10% of the best teams from around the U.S. are invited to this competitive and prestigious event. Team Excel represents Tri-State Cheer of Springfield, PA, and only recently learned of its nomination to The Summit following a qualifying event in late March.

The late cheer season invitation necessitates some creative fundraising events during the month of April to defray team costs such as team member registration fees, coaches’ registration fees, and cheerleader, coach and parent flights, hotel rooms, and meals. Costs for the 15-member team, coaches and parents could exceed $12,000. A GoFundMe webpage has been set up to accept donations at: https://www.gofundme.com/w7y3539w, with 100% of the donations going toward team competition expenses.

Besides the GoFundMe page, a variety of “fun”-draising events are scheduled at Tri-State’s Springfield facility for the next several weeks, including a Gravity Bingo date, Fantastic Friday and Sensational Saturday open gym dates, a spring plant sale, local grocery store donation collection dates, as well as walking taco and baked good sales. Details for all the fundraising events can be found on http://www.tristatecheer.com.

Pattie Brower, owner of Tri-State Cheer, commented, “We are so excited that Team Excel has been chosen to attend The Summit. The girls have worked so hard all year to master their routine, continue to hit challenging stunts through more than a dozen cheer competitions since last December, and perform at a high level as a team. To know that this team has reached the pinnacle of U.S. cheer competitions is an honor.”

Team Excel members are grammar- and middle-school students hailing from local schools in and around Delaware County. According to Varsity All Star, competitive cheer teams (and specifically All Star cheerleading squads not affiliated with a school) exist solely to compete in local, regional and national competitions, similar to “travel teams” in sports such as soccer, lacrosse and field hockey. Teams compete based on age and difficulty level (1-6, 6 being the most difficult), with Team Excel beating out numerous other Level 1 teams across the U.S. to attain its at-large bid to The Summit in 2016.