I am sad to say that I haven’t made it to many SHWI meetings this year and I was especially gutted to miss Sam Cleasby last month. Yet, I’ll also admit that I wasn’t totally psyched about cheerleading; it’s hard when you’re as badly coordinated as I am! But, as usual, I had a brilliant time. And I’m pretty sure everyone else did too.
We started the meeting with the usual updates from Laura. That really doesn’t do the “Bainbridge News n Views show” justice at all as she manages to make the announcements intriguing and enticing and hilarious all at once. We are really lucky to have such an entertaining secretary! Before we began working up a sweat (and I really did, sorry!), we sang Happy Birthday and Jerusalem for Winnie – a lady in Sheffield with few family or friends who is about to turn 100! Happy Birthday Winnie!!
But alas, the time had come for me to flail my gangly arms and legs about out of sync and in the opposite direction to everyone else. It wasn’t so bad at first as we did a nice little warm up; a bit of marching on the spot and some arm and neck stretches but then we had to clench and unclench our fingers quickly with arms outstretched – that’s a lot more tiring than it sounds! So far so good though – I hadn’t whacked anyone else or fallen over and everyone else was ready to start learning our cheer routine, and shaking pom poms.
The routine was set to the classic 90s rave song The Key: The Secret – great choice! We started with some basic footwork – got that. Then we did some arms – got those (forgot the name of the move though). Then we did them together – aaaaand that’s when it all went wrong for me! Ha ha ha. But, everyone was having a great time and I didn’t care! I was glad when it was our turn to move to the back so that other people could get a good view of the moves though.
We soon added some windmills followed by steps forward with arms and jumps backwards and then some sidesteps with turns and pretend pom pom shaking. It was all broken down into manageable chunks (phew!!) and then we got to practice in small groups with the pom poms!!!!!!!!! We were a little bit excited!
But, it didn’t end there. We added some more moves – getting into a line and doing a coordinated arms up and down hands shaky thing and then stepping out on alternate sides before another spin and a snazzy finale of pom pom shaking. Once again, it was time for the pom poms but this time we had to shout “Ready! OK!” before we kicked off. We had to do our routines in three groups but that was great as it meant we all got to watch and cheer each other on (and I got to watch it again to try and remember everything!). I had to concentrate quite hard when it was my turn but I was very lucky to be stood behind the wonderfully coordinated Alice so I followed her lead. Obviously, we all nailed our routines!!!!
We had such fun cheering with Jessica!
By the end of all those moves I had definitely worked up a nice sweat and was very glad for the lovely warm down and a big glass of water.
Goooooooo SHWI!!
Leanne Sunter Assistant Treasurer