Falcons Fly High in Macy Parade

Article taken from The Portsmouth Daily Times, November 26, 2004


This week was an exciting time for several cheerleaders in Scioto County who were among 600 cheerleaders and dancers nationwide to perfom in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York City.
Cheerleaders from Minford, Portsmouth, and Notre Dame performed in Harold's Square during the famous parade.
"We went to cheerleading camp this summer and they gave us applications to fill out," said Megan McGowan, a senior at Minford High School.
After they received confirmation that they were going to be in the parade, the girls from Minford began having car washes, bake sales, selling cany bars, and getting business donations to pay for the trip.
Greeting the girls at the airport was a stretch limousine to take them to the Hilton in New York City where they stayed.
"They treated the cheerleaders like celebrities," said Sarah McGraw, a senior at Minford.
The week was organized and planned by Mike Miller and Associates for Universal Cheerleaders Association and Univeral Dancers Association.
The first item planned was an orientation at the hotel. Then practice started right away.
"Unitl Monday, we practiced in America's Hall," McGowan said. "And then in the Grand Ballroom in the Hilton Hotel."
On Monday, the girls rehearsed at Harold Square. The whole week was planned for the girls, even taking in a Broadway show.
"There were a lot of celebrities at Harold Square when we were rehearsing," she said. "Broadway was phenomenal. We saw the show Booklyn."
The week was filled with special shows and sightseeing throughout the city."Besides being in the parade, I really enjoyed Radio City Music Hall and watching the Christmas Spectacular," said Laura Tingler, a senior at Minford. "We got to go on a Big Apple city tour and see different attractions around New York City. It was very exciting."
The girls had one day to shop at Macy' and had special dinners during the week at Ellen's Stardust Diner and Plant Hollywood.
"Of course being in the parade and walking through with 2 1/2 million people watching was exciting," said Sarah McGraw, a senior at Minford. "But my favorite was the Broadway play. It's the first one I've ever been to," Part of the tour included a trip to Ground Zero and going to the top of the Empire State Building. "We got to see Ground Zero and it was really sad to see all the people's names on there," McGraw said.
Wednesday night the girls had dance class from a famous choreographer, Frank Hatchett, from New York. Not many of the girls went, McGraw said, but the girls from Minford wanted to go. "It was a hip-hop jazzy dance, not like cheerleading at all but it was really fun to take," she said.
The girls got up at 4:30 a.m. Thursday morning and hopped on a subway to go to Central Park where the parade started. Line up for the parade began at 7 a.m. It ended at Macy's Department Store, a 2 1/2-mile parade route.
"I think the most exciting thing was performing at Harold Square," McGowan said. "There was a lot of anticipation getting there." Thursday night, the Hilton prepared a traditional Thanksgiving fare for the cheerleaders.
"One little girl asked for our autographs and we had our pictures taken with them," McGowan said.
A stretch limousine picked the girls up from the hotel to take them back to the airport this morning, leaving New York City in true celebrity style.

Editor's Note: The Times staff were unable to get interviews with Portsmouth and Notre Dame High School cheerleaders.