Practice!

At 9:00 Saturday morning, over 100 girls from fourth through ninth grades and from both Woodstock and McHenry gathered in the new Woodstock High gym for the first annual Sarah McCullagh Memorial Pom Pon Clinic.

They worked all morning with both this years' Pom Pon Squad and with Alumni Poms who returned just for this event. Each grade level was split into four separate groups, and learned a variation of the dance appropriate for their level. The song was "Do Ya Love Me" by The Contours,and the parts were choreographed by Kara Friedel.After practicing their individual team parts until about 11:30, the dividing curtain came up, and everyone got onto the floor.

The first run-through was riveting. Observing parents and helpers watched excitedly as the girls stumbled a bit through the first dance, but it looked like a dance! And with every practice run, the moves became more fluid, and the dancers more confident.

The Poms soon started them practicing the walk-on and walk-off, important parts to a finished dance routine. At about 1:00, with the parents watching, the girls lined up, 3 rows on the right, two on the left. On cue, the girls started filing onto the gym floor. Then Mary started the music, and we saw magic.

Each girls was given a souvenir picture and the official T-Shirt to wear that night. Class was dismissed, and the dancers went home, a good number of them to practice at home, we hear.

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The proceeds from this clinic
will help support both the
WHS Pom Pon Squad and the
Sarah McCullagh Scholarship.