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UCA Employee Gives Back During Tough Times Our very own Regional Manager, Lauri Harris, is one of those people. She set up and organized what news stations are calling the Worlds Larges Garage Sale. The garage sale she organized was held at Bayside Church in Granite Bay. The night before the garage sale, more than 100 families dropped things off to be sold and 50 families organized the items for sale. The church received an overwhelming number of items from, toys to clothes and furniture to cars. After managing to raise $102,000, they gave 100 percent of their profits to charities. In total, two dozen charities benefited from the Bayside Church garage sale. UCA wants to say "Thanks" and Congratulations to Lauri Harris for all of her hard work! 77.4% of every dollar MDA spends goes directly to research, health care services and education. The rest goes to fundraising and administration.
Allie is now 15 years old and has learned a lot about her condition. She has discovered that, CMT is neuromuscular disease that causes a lot of weakness and tightness in the legs, feet, hands and arms. It also causes muscle wasting. It damages the peripheral nerves which carry signals from the brain to the spine and muscles. But it hasn't slowed her down. Her doctors and parents never thought she would be able to cheer and play sports like she does today.
Allie says, that she gets hurt a lot but, it is partly because of the CMT. She had knee surgery this summer but made sure to schedule it after she attended UCA cheer camp to ensure she would be able to compete with her squad from Redemptorist High School. At camp, her squad received 1st place in home pom, Camp Champs for cheer, and was recognized as a superior squad.
"The instructors were all amazing throughout the camp. They have a way of encouraging you to do our best and never give up. They are also very well trained and always make sure we do everything correctly and safely. Over all, it was a great camp experience."
Inspiration from others pushes Allie to fight her illness each day. "When I got to the doctor, of course they tell me it is getting a little worse every time, but that just gives me even more of a drive to push through and do what I want to do. When my doctor told me that I would never be able to tumble, I thought to myself 'watch me' and I did. I am close to a round off back handspring by myself! My neurologist backs me 100%. Thanks Dr. Golden! I guess this has actually taught me something. It has taught me to never give up on your dreams no matter what and DREAM BIG!!!" "I want to say thanks again to UCA and UDA. Every penny counts!" |
In these tough times, a lot of people are struggling to pay their bills. But individuals aren’t the only ones feeling the effects of our economy, charities are also struggling. They are seeing a decline of people donating to their organizations. And in a time like this, it is humbling to know there are still people getting involved with their community and lending a helping hand. 
When asked how much money they hoped to raise, Lauri said, “Any amount was going to be great, $10,000 - $50,000, but we had no idea we were going to raise $102,000!” 
Allie Williams, a cheerleader from Redemptorist High School, was diagnosed with CMT when she was seven years old and is thankful for the money UCA has helped raised for MDA. "Every penny that is donated goes towards a good cause, whether it is for the many physical therapy sessions we attend, or the braces we have to wear" says Allie.
"Camp really gave our squad the opportunity to learn new things and more importantly come together as a squad," says Allie. "Each day we are challenged to achieve the unexpected, which we do with the help of our instructors, coaches, and big brother/sister." 
UCA helps raise money for St Jude!
On October 25th, the Second Annual St Jude Cheer for the Kids Cheer and Dance Competition will take place at Arlington High School in Memphis, TN. Committed youth and young people are teaming up to showcase Memphis Cheer and Dance talent and raise money for a very worthy cause. During the competition, vendors from throughout the community will be present and a silent auction will take place. All proceeds from the event will go to St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. UCA and UDA are proud to be a part of the event and will be providing judges, the scoring system, and the trophies!
St. Jude Children's Research Hospital has helped many children around the country who have been diagnosed with cancer. The hospital is famous for its research and patient care, making it a hot spot for some of the leading researchers around the country to reside.
St. Jude takes pride in saying, "their researchers are published and cited more often in high impact publications than any other private pediatric oncology research institution in America." The research they have done has "completely changed how the world treats children with cancer and other catastrophic diseases."
One Special St. Jude patient, Vivian Laws, is a middle school cheerleader in Cordova who was diagnosed with bone cancer in 2007. She, like so many other children, has benefitted from the research and care provided at St. Jude.
Click here to learn more about Vivian's inspiring story.
The St. Jude Cheer for the Kids Competition will be held at Arlington High School in Memphis, TN on Saturday, October 25, 2008. There will be a $200 per squad registration fee and a $7 fee for spectators. Squads participating in the competition may waive the competition fees by participating in the Cheer for the Kids St. Jude Fundraising Challenge! The squad that raises the most money will win a fully catered suite at a 2008 Memphis Grizzles basketball game.
Race for the Cure
This summer 'Susan G Komen for the Race for the Cure' held one of their many events in Memphis, TN. To contribute to the cause, Varsity created a team of 20 employees to run in the event. When each person joined the Varsity Cheerful spirit Team, he or set a goal to determine how much money could raise before race day. As a team, Varsity's goal was to raise $1,000, which they more than doubled by raising an incredible amount of $2,106!
The team member who raised the most money was Kristin Hoskinson, UCA's Northeast Regional Sales Director who raised $415. According to Kristin,
"Breast cancer has always been a worry in my family. My grandmother died at the young age of 51 from breast cancer and my mom was 49 when she was diagnosed with breast cancer. The worst part in all of this was seeing my mother, my idol and the strongest woman I know, be so weak and in such pain. After watching her go through such hard times with what I call that horrible "c word" (cancer) I will now do anything I possibly can to help breast cancer research, because it hits so close to home. My mother is now healthy and hasn't had any problems since, but it took her about 2 years to get her full strength back from the surgeries. She also participates in numerous walks near our home in Ohio and she, along with one of her closet friends, made the 10 hour drive down here from Ohio to join the Varsity Cheerful Spirit Team in the 'Race for the Cure' here in Memphis."Kristin Continues, "The biggest thing to me now, with being a young woman who's at such high risk for breast cancer, is trying to stay involved as much as I possibly can to help fund research. If my time does come to fight the disease, then it will be an easy battle because of my knowledge of the disease, and because of the great knowledge doctors have of it due to people supporting the research."
With the help of all the teams who entered the Memphis event, Race for the Cure managed to raise an incredible $554,818 at that race alone!
School Spirit Rally
Last month, a local elementary school contacted Universal Cheerleaders Association for information on school spirit. The question was, "Does a school that does not have athletics, still need school spirit?" UCA's answer was a resounding YES! The Parent/Teacher Organization from Oak Forest Elementary wanted to do something to get students more involved and create a greater sense of school pride. After several discussions, UCA created a "School Spirit Rally" specifically for their school. The pep rally was based around the idea of building school spirit at Oak Forest. It discussed unity and created a hand sign for their Falcon mascot.The UCA staff also discussed school pride and what it feels like when you are proud of your school.
UCA Instructor Ashley Cowen said, "I had a blast directing the activities and leading the cheers and chants. It is very fulfilling knowing you can have such a positive impact on not only the youth of today, but also the community!"
The pep rally also focuses around making good decisions as part of building school spirit.
Building school spirit does not have to cost a lot of money or rely on fundraising. "Title I schools do not have the luxury of spending money on extracurricular activities but that does not mean the school can't have great school spirit and pride. I am glad UCA could create this pep rally to give Oak Forest Elementary students some pride in their school," said VP of curriculum, Daniel Uselton.
UCA knows cheerleaders across the country do things everyday to improve their schools and communities. We would love to hear what your squad is doing to help out.Email your responses to eeinspahr@uca.com.
The Make a Wish Foundation is an organization has been around since 1980 and has helped over 167,000 children around the world. Their mission statement is “We grant the wishes of children with life-threatening medical conditions to enrich the human experience with hop, strength and joy.”
Last month, UCA helped give back to this foundation by helping to collect donations for this great cause. UCA volunteers were stationed on a busy street corner in Memphis, TN asking for donations.
"I want to say Thank You to the UCA group for helping out! They had quite a showing!" said Scott Eliott.
UCA volunteers weren’t the only people volunteering their time; people from all around the Memphis area collected donations. In total, Make a Wish Foundation raised $571, 000 that day.
