To our beloved East LA, it is an honor to share with you all the joy it has brought the Garfield Cheer Squad to bring home our first ever CIF Cheer Championship title! Garfield Cheer has always been a squad that dominates on both the sideline and the competition mat for decades now. We’ve brought home countless of titles in Sharp, USA, and even JAMZ jackets. Since it began in 2018, there has not been one year in which Garfield did not qualify to compete at the City Championships. This year, Garfield Cheer will be taking home Garfield’s first ever CIF Championship, winning first in the All-Girl Varsity Large division. With the championship, comes the opportunity for the team to purchase rings. Because of this, our cheer squad is fundraising money to cover the expenses of the rings. Seeing as this team has 14 seniors who have paid many expenses these past few months and who are moving on to college, and how cheer is such a financially demanding sport all year long, we’re asking our community to help us raise the funds to purchase the cheer squad’s rings for them. These group of girls have worked tirelessly since the summer of 2022 on this routine. Through blood, sweat, and many tears they were able to persevere and leave their hearts and soul on that mat on April 29th. This team is led by a tremendous coaching staff: Coaches Ashely Gutierrez, Justine Cole, Christina Quijada, April Gonzales, Jessica Preciado, and Roxanna Romero, all of whom are proud Garfield Alumni. This year alone, Garfield Cheer traveled to perform with the Black Eyed Peas at the Coliseum for the East LA Classic, have earned 1st place at their JAMZ regionals competition, medaled 3rd at JAMZ Nationals in Las Vegas, and came in second in their Southern Eastern League. But unfortunately, as high as the highs were, they also faced some extremely difficult hardships. This year Garfield Cheer faced a tremendous loss as we said goodbye to one of our own, our guardian angel Laura Ortega. In the middle of our competition season, we had to join hands and hearts to lay our sweet Laura to rest. Our team suffered a great loss and was extremely heartbroken. But it was our love for Laura that gave us our strength to form an even closer bond to come together as one to win as much as we could in her honor. Laura will forever have a special place in our hearts and in this win, we like to believe that she had her hands on us that day at Championships. All in all, this team has shown true strength, and the true meaning of hard work and focusing on ourselves and how we can improve every day. They’ve worked through losses, pains, aches, bloody noses, & exhausted bodies. They’ve cheered for as many sports as they could while also practicing tirelessly at their own. This win was for our community, our GHS cheer alumni, our school, our parents, Laura, and our coaches. A HUGE thank you to our parents, our Garfield staff, our community for never failing to show up for a Bulldog, to Coach Bleu for always lending a helping hand, to Mr. Hernandez for making it possible for our squad to have such an eventful year, to Mr. Lopez our number one competition fan, and of course to our exceptional principal Mr. Favela. Thank you in advance for all your support, shares, and donations. We truly appreciate and are grateful for all the support given to our squad!