Trip to England memorable for Worrell, Westrum, Hill
UNFORGETTABLE EXPERIENCE — From left, NRHEG cheerleaders Avery Hill, Laura Worrell and Hailey Westrum recently traveled to England. (Star Eagle photo by Melanie Piltingsrud)
By MELANIE PILTINGSRUD
Contributing Writer
Seniors Laura Worrell and Hailey Westrum, and sophomore, Avery Hill spent their holiday break from NRHEG High School in style – with a trip to London.
The girls are on a number of cheer teams at NRHEG, and last June they participated in a two-day cheer camp with the Universal Cheerleaders Association (UCA). At the cheer camp, they competed with a cheer routine for the opportunity to visit London, England with their cheer coach Kari Buendorf, and perform in the London New Year’s Day Parade. UCA chooses winners based on cleanness, tightness, and how well the cheerleaders learned the routine.
According to the girls, they practice every day. “We have three different teams going on right now,” said Westrum, “our Winter Sideline, Wrestling and Performance.” According to the girls, there are 14 cheerleaders on Winter Sideline, eight on Wrestling and 18 on Performance. These girls are on all the teams, so they had good reason to win the UCA competition.
The cheerleaders left for London on Dec. 26, returning Jan. 2. In the meantime, they saw just about all the important sites in London.
On Friday, the day after their arrival, they toured Windsor Castle, Hill’s favorite part of the trip. She enjoyed walking around the castle and the grounds with a recorded tour guide and headphones.
That evening, the group saw the play “Wicked” at West End Theatre, which Worrell said was her favorite part of the trip.
Westrum lumped her favorite part of the trip into a big category: “I think just all the sights,” she said, “because I love taking pictures.” There was a picture Westrum’s mom had taken years ago at Windsor. She had forgotten her mom’s picture until she got home and they found that Westrum had taken almost the identical photo. Westrum also mentioned riding on the London Eye, which overlooks the city, and made Westrum feel like she was riding around in a giant Advil.
Saturday was a free day, and the three girls all chose to spend it differently. “I put on 24,000 steps – about 9.3 miles,” said Westrum. She had a FitBit to keep track of her steps as she took a walking tour to see Buckingham Palace, Westminster Abbey and Parliament. “I went to Stonehenge and Bath,” said Worrell. “It was really cool to see, because you see it everywhere, but... It’s just rocks,” Worrell laughed. “You couldn’t spend hours there.” Hill, along with her mother and brother, went to see the Tower of London Castle, where she got to see the crown jewels and an 800-year-old gold spoon. Then, they went to Camden, where they ate lunch and shopped. “Then we went to Piccadilly Circus,” said Hill. “That’s another big shopping/food area. And then we went to Covent Garden.” Hill laughed as she added, ”And that was more shopping.” There, the three girls met up and went to Harrods Department Store, well-known for its high-end fashion.
On Sunday, the girls took a city tour of London on a coach bus, on which they saw Westminster Abbey, St. Paul’s Cathedral and Covent Garden. There, they ate lunch, and then continued the tour to see the Changing of the Guard at Buckingham Palace. That day, the girls also had a practice session for their upcoming cheer routines in the New Year’s Day parade.
Monday, New Year’s Eve, was another free day. In the evening, a party at the Tower Bridge Hotel for all the cheerleaders was planned, but our three girls also took the opportunity to go ice skating beforehand at the Tower of London, and they had a wonderful time. Worrell said, “All of the other girls were getting ready for the party, and me and Hailey were just still down there [skating].” Westrum expressed their momentary inner debate, “Okay, party or ice skating on New Year’s Eve in London...”
At the New Year’s Eve party, there was a DJ and lots of security for the cheerleaders, while the London Eye shot off fireworks to mark the changing of the year.
On New Year’s Day, the girls performed in the London New Year’s Day Parade with about 1,500 other cheerleaders from all over the United States. “We were in three separate groups,” said Hill. “We all had different routines, different colored uniforms,” said the girls. All the cheerleaders were grouped according to which airport they departed from in the United States.
“They sent us all of our materials before we left,” said Worrell. “We were supposed to learn it before we got there, but we had one practice when we were there. It was only like an hour and a half, too.”
“You could tell who honestly practiced it and who didn’t,” said Westrum, who admits that she was “kind of in the middle” as far as how well she’d learned it.
“We knew like half of it,” said Worrell, “and then we were in our room practicing it the night before.”
The girls didn’t get to see much of the parade. “Just the people that were in front of and behind us,” said Hill.
“You had to move so fast,” said Westrum. The cheerleaders were told before the parade that they’d have to run between performances. According to them, everyone took this to mean an easy jog. “But it was full-out sprint,” said Worrell. “We’d do a performance, and then you’d just sprint to your next spot,” Westrum confirmed. Once, there were three or more blocks of solid sprinting because, by the time they’d finished their two-minute routine, they were way behind the rest of the parade. The whole parade lasted about 3 ½ hours, so it was quite a workout, but the girls said there was a lot of waiting between performances, too, so they were not in constant motion throughout the parade.
The girls said the Londoners seemed a step ahead of us in fashion, and in general “more modern,” and they agreed that the only cars they saw were expensive ones: Porches, Rolls-Royces and Bentleys. But besides driving on the other side of the street and the different accents, “I kind of thought it was normal,” said Westrum of the culture.
Getting around in London was a unique experience for the cheerleaders. What seemed rude to them was apparently normal to the Londoners. “You’d be walking and you’d get bumped or something and they wouldn’t say sorry,” said Hill. “You had to walk strong,” said Westrum. Sometimes, for example, they had to push their way onto a tube car that was already crowded. Hill concurred, “Like the tube doors – if you’re in there, they’ll shut on you; they don’t wait for you.” Westrum said cheerfully, “We all made it, but we were all nice and cozy.”
If you ever have the chance to visit London, the girls recommend that you visit: Windsor, Buckingham Palace, Westminster Abbey, St. Paul’s Cathedral, “all the museums” the London Eye and Harrods Department Store. Hill said, ‘If people are indecisive on going, you should definitely go.”