The cheerleading squad at James Monroe High School is the first Bronx cheer team to qualify for nationals—but unless they can raise the money they need to get to Florida, the cheerleaders may not be attending the national competition.
They estimate it will cost $30,000 for the team of 24 students and three coaches to travel from Soundview to Orlando, where the UCA National High School Cheerleading Championship in February takes place. That figure covers the cost of airfare, lodgings, and food for the cheerleaders and their chaperones.
The team launched a GoFundMe account three months ago to cover the costs, and they've raised the majority of the money in the past few days. As of Friday afternoon, the team had raised over $22,000 from nearly 500 individual donors—yesterday, Jezebel reported that the team had raised just over $5,000.
"We come from a place where opportunities rarely come, but we developed a community that supports each other's goals," the team's coach, Edwin Frias, wrote. "Unfortunately, many children come from homes that cannot support their child's after school program."
"Many of them have difficult lives outside of school, and so participating in this team means a lot to them," school principal Emarilix Lopez told Pix11. The school is reportedly so under-resourced that the team often doesn't have a place to practice.
According to their GoFundMe, Monroe is located in "a high-needs area and rarely receives extra money" to support extracurricular programs and activities. According to data from the Furman Center for Real Estate and Urban Policy, nearly 30 percent of residents in Soundview and Parkchester live below the poverty line.
"I don't want people to feel like just because we come from this area that we cannot be as good as they are," cheer team captain Malay'ja Herd told News12.
