“Rally!” JANUARY 2022 SPECIAL EDITION The Sin City Classic Recap Issue |
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PCA hosted Charitable Cheerleading events all weekend at the Sin City Classic XV in Las Vegas, NV, January 14-16, 2022. With a strict COVID-19 Mitigation Plan in place, we accomplished our primary goal of creating a safe and welcoming opportunity for our volunteers to reunite, make new friends within the PCA family, support fellow LGBTQ athletes, and engage in some fun, focused fundraising… and a little friendly competition. |
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Throughout the weekend, PCA had our Spirit Buckets all over town, collecting cash, coin, and even POKER CHIP donations for our primary beneficiary, Golden Rainbow. Golden Rainbow provides housing, education and direct financial assistance to men, women and children living with HIV/AIDS in Southern Nevada. This local, grassroots, 501(c)(3) is devoted to health and wellness in the LGBTQ+ community and is the ONLY organization in Southern Nevada dedicated to serving people with HIV/AIDS. Donations were also collected electronically, via Facebook, PayPal, and Venmo. Imagine the counting, converting, tracking, depositing, transferring, bookkeeping, pivot-tabling…the indescribable mental gymnastics associated with public donation solicitation! We had a goal of raising $1,000 for Golden Rainbow that weekend. We’ll have an exact donation amount to report soon, but suffice it to say: Our $1,000 goal? WE CRUSHED IT! |
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Why do we go to the Sin City Classic every year? To support LGBTQ Athletics! There is something so unique, safe, welcoming, purposeful, and self-affirming about participating in LGBTQ sports. We do everything we can - including superhuman acrobatics and customized cheers - to show our support! We are so enamored with athleticism, and so captivated by the community this creates. Between the “You Can Do It” and the “You Did It” (and the occasional “It’s alright, it’s okay”) cheers, there’s rarely time for us to express and highlight what being a Charitable Cheerleader feels like to us! This year, we were blessed to be joined by talented journalist and sports psychologist Dirk Smith of Compete Sports Diversity. He captured a first-hand account of the entire experience and put our passions and emotions into words! Read his analysis of the collective anxiety and the collective harmony that goes into producing a PCA performing appearance: “Las Vegas and A Bus Full Of Cheerleaders: My Adventure with Pride Cheerleading Association at the Sin City Classic.” |
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PCA hosts a Charitable Cheerleading competition at the Sin City Classic, too! Open to all adults, regardless of PCA affiliation, talent level, or experience, this event is like no other cheerleading competition. What sets it apart from mainstream cheerleading - the fundraising first mentality. Fundraising is the first thing the competitors do and it is the first line on the scoresheet. Competitive groups spend the first 30-60 minutes out on the Las Vegas Strip, shaking their Spirit Buckets, showing off skills, shouting out the mission of PCA, and inspiring passersby to donate toward our beneficiary, Golden Rainbow. Each group could earn up to 10 points on the Scoresheet for how much money they raised in their buckets in this short time. (For context, this is the same amount of points they would earn for a one-arm heel stretch partner stunt with a kick-double dismount. Just sayin’. Our values are clear.) Below are the rankings for the Partner Stunt and Group Stunt Divisions offered by PCA at the Sin City Classic XV: Partner Stunt
1 - Gold - Space Cowboys
2 - Silver - Tap That Group Stunt
1 - Gold - Shan and the Holograms
2 - Silver - Pat This A full playlist of competition routines and noncompetitive exhibition routines (including a surprise celebrity cameo!) can be found on PCA’s YouTube Channel, here. |
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The first shoutouts absolutely go to the PCA Member Teams represented at the event. Thank you to the following teams for supporting volunteer attendance at the Sin City Classic, for creating safe spaces for adults to cheer for charity, and trusting them to combine forces with other Member Teams at this PCA hosted event: The next shoutouts go to the supporters and partner orgs that made the weekend possible: - Golden Rainbow, our primary beneficiary for the event
- UNLV for letting us borrow cheerleading competition mats
- Triple J Tours for an incredible deal on a chartered bus for our volunCHEERing adventures
- Cheer Mix A Lot for original performance music
- Caesar’s, Flamingo, and Encore for venue and sound
- Paradise Awards for medals
- Judges who volunteered their time pro bono: John Zapater, Lessandro De Sousa, Justin Samortin, and judges’ table staff Emily Sanchez
- Dirk Smith of Compete Sports Diversity who joined us for some primary source journalism
- Sports Leaders who collaborated with PCA to bring Charitable Cheerleaders to their events: Rosalynn Bugg of ASANA Women's+ Softball, Will Hackner of Varisty Gay League Kickball, Laura Porth and Mary Kimball of USQuidditch, Rick Maas of GLASA Men’s Softball
- And of course, Larry Ruiz and Jason Peplinski, Co-Directors of the 2022 Sin City Classic Sports Tournament and Festival and Lucas Mariano of Sin City Classic Marketing
Last shoutouts are PCA internal. Thank you to the PCA Board Directors, Committee Members, and PCA Member Team Contacts who participated in the high-level planning and direct execution of an amazing event: - Colyn Fiendel-Milani, PCA Board Director, Events Chair, Choreographer
- Sara Toogood, PCA Board Secretary, Marketing Chair
- Kaitlyn Metscher, PCA Board President
- Mark Hedelund, PCA Board Treasurer
- Valerie Winkle and Jack Tasca of Cheer Portland
- Leah Guillermo and Morgan Craig of CHEER San Francisco
- Sam Couturier of Cheer Los Angeles
- Valina Eckley of Cheer Salt Lake
- Crystal Adams of CHEER Tacoma
- Volunteer photographers Jessica Hamilton and Angela Haley of CHEER Tacoma and Piyadha Seybolt of Cheer Los Angeles
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We’ll get back to our regular “Rally!,” including Meet a Team features, next month! |
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