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Give a cheer for the North Shore Cheerleaders

Intellectually handicapped kids welcomed

Alycia Ambroziak
The Gazette
Monday, August 18, 2008

Everyone knows that cheerleading is for the cutest and perkiest boys and girls, with no room for anyone else, right?
Wrong – at least as far the North Shore Cheerleading sports association is concerned.
Besides the league’s regular cheerleading squads, North Shore Cheerleading – which is opening a new gym next month on Hymus Blvd. in Dorval – offers cheerleading classes to moms and dads as well as noncompetitive classes for everyone.
But the one class that is closest to Tracey Wrench’s heart is the cheerleading team for kids with intellectual disabilities.
“I saw a team in the U.S. ... which blended kids with disabilities with the regular squads, and I thought how great it would be have that, or something similar to that, here,” said Wrench, recreation co-ordinator for the West Island Association for the Intellectually Handicapped (WIAH), a non-profit organization founded in 1958 aimed at enhancing the lives of people with intellectual disabilities.
As it happened, Leanne Fiddler, a lifelong cheerleader and coach with North Shore Cheerleading, volunteered at WIAH last year and was willing to give it a try, along with North Shore cheerleading coach Victoria D’Urso.
“It was a great coincidence,” Wrench said, adding a pilot program was put together and four girls from WIAH, all in their mid-teens, took part in the cheerleading program.
“It was awesome,” Wrench said.
As for Fiddler, a Vanier student in special needs counselling, putting the squad together was a dream come true.
“It was a blending my two main interests – cheerleading and working with people with special needs,” said the 19-year-old who is working at WIAH this summer and will continue to work there on a part-time basis during the school year.
“We only had four members on the Dream Team last year but, this year, we expect a lot more.”
The special needs squad was originally open to 12 to 18-year-olds but, this year, it will be opened to children as young as 7, said Leanne’s mother, Beverley, treasurer for the more than 150-member cheerleading association.
And as far is Dream Team member Chiara Cortese, 16, is concerned, last year’s pilot project was “cool.”
When asked if she enjoyed the program, Chiara, who is globally developmentally delayed, replied with a resounding “yes!”
Her mother, Janet Barsetti-Cortese, said the pilot program was beneficial to Chiara, who is looking forward to this year’s Dream Team program, which starts in January.
“I never in a million years thought I’d ever see the day when my daughter would be a cheerleader,” the Pierrefonds resident said. “When you have a child who is developmentally delayed, she can’t be included in many activities.
“But this program was wonderful, the other cheerleaders were very supportive of her and the other girls on the Dream Team,” she added. ”She can’t wait to go back.”
Registration for all North Shore Cheerleading teams and classes, including the Dream Team, will take place Aug. 26 and 27 from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. at the Dollard des Ormeaux Civic Centre, 12001 de Salaberry Blvd. in Dollard des Ormeaux. Registration for the Dream team at WIAH takes place Sept. 10 and 13 at 111 Donegani Ave. in Pointe Claire.
For more information about North Shore Cheerleading, visit www.nscheer.com.
The email address is
cheer-nsc@hotmail.com.
For more information, about WIAH call 694-7090.