I want to share a little bit about how hard the Sea Gals work above and beyond what you might imagine to be the normal duties of an NFL cheerleader. We do about 300 community appearances each year with some being promotional appearances which we charge a fee for and some being charity appearances or just good will.
Many years ago I came up with an idea to raise some funds on our own as a squad where we would choose exactly how and where we would use the money. The Sea Gals loved the idea and we have continued this tradition for many years.
The Sea Gals actually procure every auction item themselves. We assign an auction chair (this year Shelly and Mischell shared the job) who assign various duties and make sure everyone stays on track. We have many items in the silent auction and keep the live auction to around 8 – 10 items.
The ladies sell raffle tickets, make bid paddles, put the packages together, run the tables, set up, clean up and this year we even had Sea Gal Stephanie as our live auctioneer. This year we raised $14,500.00.
The work is not over yet though. We will now get lists of needs and wants for the holidays from women & children at a Seattle area shelter. I divide the lists and the dollars and assign a Sea Gal to go shopping for these items. We manage to take care of about 35 people.
We also give grocery certificates so they can go shopping for a great holiday meal. The Sea Gals bring everything wrapped and tagged to a practice and we load up 3-4 vehicles and the ladies make the delivery.
The best part is that we don’t sign “from” on anything; that way it can be from Santa or whomever. We usually have a few thousand dollars more than what we actually need to use for the shelter so that balance is put in the Children’s Hospital Sea Gal Guild and used for uncompensated care. That is the charity auction process from start to finish.
As you can see, these ladies are made of much more than make-up, hair, and dance. They are truly hard working wonderful women who have hearts of gold!
Backstage: Q&A
Questions from the past few weeks: Most questions have been about Sea Gal Auditions for the 2012 squad. I will have audition dates and pre-audition workshop information posted on seagals.com in late January. Until then my advice is to take a variety of dance classes and keep your fitness level at the optimum.
- Sherri Thompson, Director of Sea Gals
Have a question about the Sea Gals? If so, click here to ask Sherri a question.
