Send Malia to the All-American Cheer Parade

Malia made the UCA All-American Varsity Cheer team! I'm so insanely proud of the changes and strides that she is making and would love to be able to send her with her team to Hawaii in December for the Varsiry Spirit Pearl Harbor parade. The cost for participation and hotel is over $1700, which doesn't include the plane tickets or meals. The school is not offering fundraising, as it is only a chosen number of cheerleaders, not the whole team. Below is a letter from Malia:

Hi, I'm Malia Charles. I am a senior at Silas high school. As most of you probably know, high school is a challenging four years of ups and downs, emotionally and physically, in any teenager's life. For me, it was mostly all downs. All through ninth grade, I struggled to find myself, and when 10th grade hit, Covid had also hit, making it harder for me to find out who I really was and what made me truly happy. The start of 11th grade had started to roll around, and one of my friends had mentioned cheer tryouts. At the time, I never thought cheer would soon feel like home and bring me joy, but after a year of sticking to it, I've learned that cheer is all I've ever really needed to be happy by doing something I love and have so much passion for. Cheer has taught me so much about leadership, communications, advocating for myself, and more. I also enjoy being part of a school sport because it requires me to maintain a certain GPA, which will help me get into the colleges I am soon applying for. Silas cheer attended a UCA summer cheer camp a couple of weeks ago. The camp was four days long, 8 AM-8PM, in the blazing heat. During that camp, we were being watched to see who stood out based on moves, attitude, sportsmanship, leadership, and other factors. On day three, I was nominated by UCA staff to try out for the all-American cheer team; later that day, I tried it out and fortunately made the team. This year the team will be traveling to Honolulu, Hawaii to perform in the 81st anniversary of the Pearl Harbor day parade. I am incredibly grateful to be given this opportunity and beyond excited. However, the trip is over $2000, making it difficult for me to go. This trip means a lot to me, and I so badly want to give it my all. if you could help get me to Hawaii this December, it would be gratefully appreciated. A little goes a long way; anything helps! Thank you.