Highland cheerleaders work to promote breast cancer awareness

Over the last five years, the Highland cheerleaders have been going above their normal duties at Highland to help raise awareness about breast cancer. The girls have also taken on the role of “cureleaders” during the annual Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure in May. In addition to cheering for the crowd during the race, the squad also helped at the breast cancer survivor luncheon, Oct. 1

Coach Monique Nielsen said this year the squad has gotten more involved in spreading the word about breast cancer prevention in the school and community.

“Before this year, we just participated in the luncheon and no one really knew we did it,” she said. “It’s good for them to do something bigger than them and get outside of their typical high school lives and see something that could potentially be a part of their future.”

Highland’s cheerleaders have been “cureleaders” for the last five years and were among the first schools in the valley to participate in the race. The squad cheers during the race for the participants but their chants also help to educate the crowd about breast cancer. The Race for the Cure’s motto is “I am the cure” and Nielsen said the cheerleaders help perpetuate that motto with their cheering.

Sarah Kate Price is one of the varsity captains this year and said supporting breast cancer awareness has been a tradition for Highland cheer the entire time she’s been on the squad. She said it’s good for the girls to come together and do something different.

“When I first joined the squad, I didn’t think of cheerleaders doing things outside of the school,” she said. “That’s something we wanted to do - not just to be good examples and support our school but to also reach out and support our community and do our best to help outside of school in any way we can.”

The squad is also tried to get students at Highland more involved by sponsoring pink football and volleyball games during breast cancer awareness month in October. Neilsen said the pink games have been well received by the athletes and spectators. In addition to wearing pink socks and using pink pom-poms, the squad used half time to talk more about the cause.

The football team held its pink game on Sept. 30 and the volleyball team helped support the cheerleaders during its game on Oct. 18. Neilsen said many of the basketball players told her they wanted to have a pink game as well to lend support, although a date for that game has not been set yet.

“It’s been a fun opportunity for them. The students are becoming more aware and we hope that by the basketball season, we can get more students involved and maybe raise a little money to donate,” she said.

For Sarah, having the chance to cheer for breast cancer survivors and participate in the survivor luncheon is one way for the cheerleaders to bond and come together as women.

“We are a squad made up of girls and we’re all about girl power,” she said. “It’s important to us to know our power as women and to support other women. Breast cancer is a really natural thing to support because it has already touched a lot of us and there are a lot of stories among this group of girls.”