Over the past 16 years, I've been a middle school, high school, and all star cheerleading coach; and was myself a cheerleader in both high school and college. Depending on your exposure to the sport, you may or may not know that in the last twenty years, cheerleading has gone through quite the evolution. No longer are cheerleaders simply waving their pom-poms and jumping around while spelling out two-syllable words to pump up the crowd at football games. It has evolved into a full-on sport geared towards athleticism and advanced acrobatics. Granted, we still jump around with our pom-poms spelling things out, but usually with people flying through the air behind us and flipping in front.
Well, I am proud to say that the world of cheerleading in Colorado has welcomed yet another tier to the pyramid of the sport with CHEER Colorado. CHEER Colorado is a group of volunteers that are 18 and older who stunt and perform for charity. We're on our way to being the next to join the Pride Cheerleading Association (PCA) family of charitable cheer teams across the country, joining teams like CHEER San Francisco, who have been around since 1980. We are a non-profit focused on raising spirits around Denver Metro while also raising funds for local LGBQT non-profits. And based on the current political and social climate, we couldn’t have come together at a better time.
But what does it mean to raise “spirits”? To us, it means spreading the message of love, inclusion, and acceptance through the act of cheerleading in a way Denver has never seen. It is one thing to show up and perform, but it means something far more to show up and interact with the people that make our city one of the most evolved and welcoming in the country. With our motto of “Raising Spirits a Mile High”, we plan on spreading our message one stunt, flip, and jump at a time. We do this by volunteering our time at public and private events, taking donations and getting paid for performances to help support our local LGBTQ family.
I've been volunteering with the group since it started just a few weeks ago, and in that time I've been surprised by the positive impact it's had on the local community and on the volunteers ourselves. I've experienced life as a gay man in Denver since 2012, but one of the things that I’ve continually been missing was a sense of friendship and community. The moment I walked into our first meet-up, I felt welcomed. I instantly found what I had been missing. My hope is that more individuals come and experience this wonderful group for themselves and join our ever growing family of like-minded & supportive members.
