Give a Cheer! Camp Season is Here
More than 5,000 cheerleaders attend summer camps at Alma
Summer camp season has arrived. Soon, the sounds of energetic
cheerleaders working on their routines for the upcoming school year
will be prominent throughout the campus.
For the 20th consecutive year, Alma College is the site for Champion Cheerleading’s summer camps.
Champion Cheerleading, based in Howell, will sponsor nine camp sessions
at Alma beginning July 12, with 500 or more cheerleaders attending each of the three-day camps. In all, more than
5,000 middle and high school cheerleaders will visit campus this summer.
Summer campers at Alma College include these student percussionists practicing in the lobby of the Heritage Center.
The cheerleading camps are a major revenue generator for the College, says Tammy Rees, manager of auxiliary services.
“We potentially receive as much as a half million dollars in revenue
annually for the College’s General Fund from the cheerleading camps,”
says Rees. “The camps also provide summer jobs for our housekeepers and
maintenance and food service workers.
“The organization also has done some special things for Alma in past
years to help out, such as paying for the air conditioning in Hamilton
and buying seat covers for the Heritage Center,” she says.
Champion Cheerleading offers stunt, classic, “beast,” coaches and
private camps and incorporates an anti-drug program and a candlelight program that emphasizes positive perspectives.
“The cheerleaders work on stunting techniques, tumbling, jumps,
pyramids, formations and choreographed movements,” says Rees. “There is
lots of emphasis on teamwork.
“We’ve had students enroll at Alma who have attended the cheerleading camps, though we don’t track that specifically,” she says.
The students who attend the camps sign a code of conduct form that
governs their behavior on campus. The vast majority of the cheerleaders
attend as members of school teams preparing for their fall and winter
seasons. In addition to the students, Champion Cheerleading brings a
camp staff of 55 adults to Alma.
Attendance at cheerleading camps has increased dramatically since the
Michigan High School Athletic Association added competitive cheer as an
official sport in the mid-1990s, says Rees.
While cheerleading tends to dominate the summer camp season, Alma
College also provides facilities for several sports camps, the annual
music percussion camps in June, the Dow Chemical Company High School
Leadership Institute July 14-18, and a “smattering” of conferences by
outside groups.
Posted: Thu, June 26th, 2008 at 9:16AM
