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Corner Canyon Cheerleaders Receive Cheers for Service

Sep 08, 2015 03:36PM ● By Bryan Scott

Cheerleader

By Julie Slama

Draper - More than 9,000 pairs of jeans were stacked in graduating senior Haylee Richards’ garage last winter as she and other members of Corner Canyon High School’s cheerleading squad gathered items for people in need in the community as part of the Teens for Jeans contest.

After reaching out to classmates and neighbors, the group also put boxes in local businesses, encouraging the community to drop off gently used jeans of all sizes.

“It’s a really cool thing that they are involved in the service in their community, helping out families who need a hand up,” Corner Canyon principal Mary Bailey said.

Their hard work earned them the nation’s title in the contest, with a check of $5,000 being presented to them in late spring. It also came with a free concert of  The Vamps for the entire school, which was held Aug. 14, as a kickoff to the new school year.

“It was a great service project that Haylee found and brought to us,” Corner Canyon High cheer coach Whitney Lunt said. “Many of our teens at our school have tons of jeans that they’ve outgrown or don’t wear, so it’s a direct tie to getting other teens who need pairs. Some of our girls went crazy collecting hundreds of jeans, wanting to help out.”

The contest, connected with the Do Something website and coordinated through Aeropostale, allowed the cheer squad to deliver the jeans to shelters, where they toured the facilities and learned about the programs offered.

“Some of the girls never had been to a shelter before, so it was a real eye-opening experience for them to understand these people have limited clothes. They became more grateful for what they have,” she said.

With the $5,000 they earned from the contest, the cheer team purchased new equipment for their mats, stunt stands to train fliers, new sound system technology dedicated to the cheerleaders, summer camp fee assistance and shirts and shoes for the team. Aeropostale also provided last year’s squad of 38 cheerleaders with T-shirts.

Corner Canyon, in its third year, won last year’s junior varsity and varsity 4A state titles. Then, they competed in their first year at the National High School Cheer Contest in Florida, where they finished 17th out of more than 100 teams.

In addition to participating in the Teens for Jeans contest, which this year’s team 35 cheerleaders plans to do again this year, the squad also helped cheer on runners for the Relay for Life race, held a camp for Junior Cheer this summer in Draper and participated in the Draper Days parade.