1 Lost Cheer Mom

If you didn't know you will very quickly learn, All-Star cheerleading is not a cheap endeavor. Gym fees, uniforms, shoes, bows, make-up, competition fees, travel, hotels...it all adds up, quickly.  Our costs not including the costs associated with travel are around $2000/year/child.

One way we offset the cost is by fundraising.  The most popular way is by working a booth at various concerts and sporting events.  Several of the big catering companies (Sodexo, Aramark) have contracts with the various arenas around town and use us parents as slave labor.  We get paid anywhere from $25 - $100/event.  Average pay is $50.  Sometimes we are allowed to have a tip jar and if there are only 4 of us working a big event like Rock on The Range or a Kenny Chesney concert we can clear $50 in tips on top of the money paid to our accounts.  

I know I am not alone out there.   I am a mom to All-Star Cheerleaders.  I am not nor have I ever been a cheerleader.  I actually used to stare in stunned amazement when I saw the cheerleaders at the convention center with their "covering too little" outfits and way too much over the top eye glitter.

But my youngest fell in love with a team at The Arnold Classic then convinced her sister to also join the team.  So I entered a world filled with glitter, bows and spanks.