By Mike Pound
news@joplinglobe.com
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It was raining Wednesday afternoon, so the girls took their cheer practice indoors.
The girls, mostly in the fifth and sixth grades at Diamond, were doing what a lot of girls their age do. They were giggling, laughing and talking to one another while they waited for practice to begin.
I have a daughter about the same age as the girls on the Diamond cheer squad, so I would like to think I know a little bit about kids that age. I would like to think that I do, but, truth be told, I don’t.
But if I were to guess, I would say — to use a technical child psychologist term — that a “bunch of stuff” was running through the girls’ minds on Wednesday afternoon. And interestingly enough, one of the things running through their minds was how good it feels to help out someone who is a bit less fortunate.
Lori McLaughlin is the cheer squad sponsor. She called me last week and told me that the girls on the squad had managed to raise a few hundred dollars.
Cheer teams raise money all the time. They raise money for uniforms, they raise money for cheer camps, and they raise money for trips. But what the Diamond squad did, Lori told me, was different.
The girls didn’t raise the money for themselves. They raised the money to help out a few kids in their own school district.
I think that’s something.
Lori said the girls on the cheer squad purchased a $30 gift card from an area Wal-Mart store, and then each girl agreed to sell $1 tickets for a chance to win the gift card. When the raffle was over, she said, the girls had raised $272.
Lori said the school counselor identified a family in the district that could use a bit of help. Last Sunday, some of the girls accompanied Lori to Wal-Mart and helped pick out clothes, school supplies and other items for the three kids.
“We found out that there were two other brothers in the family, and we didn’t want them to feel left out, so my husband and I chipped in some extra money,” Lori said.
I say this a lot: There are a lot of good people in the world.
In fact, the good people in the world far outnumber the bad people. It’s just that the bad people get all the press.
There are two pretty good NFL receivers playing for the Cincinnati Bengals. One of them is named Chad Ochocinco, and the other is Terrell Owens. I’m not saying Chad and Terrell are bad people, but I am saying they tend to act like knuckleheads, and they are not the sort of guys I would want on my football team.
There also is a very good NFL receiver who used to play for the Kansas City Chiefs and now plays for the Atlanta Falcons by the name of Tony Gonzalez. Not only is Tony — by all accounts — a good person, he is the sort of guy anyone would love to have on his team and the sort of guy any city would love to have living in the community.
Guess which receivers get all the ESPN attention.
I asked the girls Wednesday why they decided to give away the money they raised. They told me they gave it away because it was the right thing to do.
“And it makes you feel good,” one of the girls said, while all of the other girls nodded their heads.
Lori told me she wanted to teach the girls more than just how to cheer at football games. She said she wanted to teach them a bit about life.
“I think they learned something,” Lori said.
For the record, the girls who learned something are: Maddie Bentz, Courtney Callis, Saydi Ogden, Anastasia Green, Esperanza Martinez, Kelsey Artherton, Paige Dresslaer, Morgan Wilson, Carmen Martinez, Kristen Stark, Alex Day and Nevaeh McLaughlin.
At the end of our chat Wednesday, the girls told me that they want to start a coat drive later this fall. Lori said if anyone out there has some advice for the girls on how to run a coat drive, or if anyone wants to donate to their efforts, they can call Diamond Elementary School at 417-325-5189.
