BENTON, Ark. – Home video captured the exciting moment the Empire Cheerleaders in Benton learned which teams they would be paired up with for their mentoring program.
“This is our reveal for our mentoring program,” Empire Director of Cheerleading Jeri Kay Hammonds said in the video.
The Benton gym has been around for a few years, but its mentoring program is relatively new. It was designed so an Empire team with older members will mentor an Empire team with younger members.
“They’re just there to send a good luck when we go to competition or to come watch some of their tumble class or to give them a pat on the back if they fell in a tumble pass,” Hammonds said.
Kids as young as three and as old as 18 were on the teams. While the focus was to mentor about cheerleading, it will also spread to other aspects of navigating through their young life.
“Sometimes they don’t want to tell their mom someone was bullying them at school or they don’t want to tell someone they made a bad grade, but they’ll see their big sister here and that’s just a little shoulder,” Hammond explained.
Hammond hoped this program will show that people are never too young to become a mentor.
