Jul. 31—GRAND FORKS — Six Valley Senior Living residents have taken on a new role, cheering for the Grand Forks Spitfires softball team through its inaugural season this summer at UND’s Albrecht Field — and loving every minute of it.
The “Sparks” cheerleading squad has been outfitted with Spitfire caps, shirts and pom-poms. Earlier this summer, they learned a cheer routine with the team’s promotional staff.
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Nobody in the group has done anything like this before.
For Claire Julson, 92, cheerleading for the Spitfires “is something to do,” she said. She most enjoys “coming out and seeing the game, seeing the people.”
Julson, who was born in Grafton and raised in Grand Forks, wouldn’t call herself a sports fan, she said, but she does like hockey and football.
“And I am getting to like this sport,” she said from the sidelines at a recent game against Mankato’s Habaneros.
What San Juanita Ramirez, 80, likes most about being a Sparks cheerleader is “the players,” she said. She’s especially fond of and likes watching No. 8, shortstop Sofia Meer.
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“She’s nice,” said Ramirez, who came here from Laredo, Texas, to be near her daughter.
Earlier this season, four players visited Valley Senior Living on Columbia, where they shared laughter, stories and conversations with the women who volunteered to be cheerleaders and “host grandmas,” said Sally Grosgebauer, VSL director of marketing.
The players learned about the residents’ lives while building friendships that have made the partnership even more special, Grosgebauer said.
Addie Ferguson, a Spitfires catcher, said getting to know the cheerleading ladies is evidence of the team engaging with the community.
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“It’s been full of good energy and super fun,” Ferguson said. “I think being able to give back is something that the team is super passionate about.”
During the visit, the players spoke with all the ladies about their positions and where they are from. Ferguson is from California and recently graduated with a degree in communication studies from Towson University in Maryland.
Each resident was paired with a specific player, Grosgebauer said. Ferguson has been teamed with Susan Aasand.
At the ballpark recently, Aasand, 72, held a large color cutout of Ferguson’s face on a stick.
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“I just enjoy the game itself,” she said. As a lifelong Grand Forks resident, during high school, she enjoyed watching the Red River Roughriders basketball team play.
Cheerleading the Spitfires “is good,” she said. “A lot of fun. I enjoy it.”
Joni Cepak, 68, said she’s happy that she can perform as a cheerleader in front of an audience.
“The fans cheer us,” said Cepak, originally from Lakota.
At the edge of the ball field recently, Cepak said, “It’s nice out here,” just before clapping and shouting, “Yes! Go, Mattie,” rooting for Mattison Kwarta, a pitcher and power hitter from San Diego State University.
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Community partnership
Roberto Lemus, the team’s general manager, said the idea of engaging residents in senior living facilities as cheerleaders is not new to the Northwoods League — it’s been a feature in the Bismarck and Minot, too.
The Sparks have cheered at five games this summer. The Spitfires’ regular season began in early June and ends on Saturday, Aug. 1.
“One, it’s a fan favorite and, two, it’s just something that’s really meaningful for both the cheerleaders and the people who are involved in making it happen,” said Lemus, a former staff member with the Bismarck Larks. “With us, our big thing is just being a part of the community and having an impact on people’s lives. We knew we had to do this promotion in Grand Forks as well.”
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As the Spitfires looked for “great community partners and great ways to get involved in the community — while at the same time keeping our mission and our values in line — and right away, you think about a senior living home, especially Valley Senior Living and everything that they do.”
Cheering for the team is “an opportunity for residents to come out to the game and be outside again,” Lemus said. They can be “doing something fun and maybe reliving some of the best years of their life. So giving them the opportunity to do something like that, we feel like it’s really valuable and we knew we had to make it happen here in Grand Forks as well.”
Along with cheering from the sidelines, the Sparks sit in wheelchairs during the game for safety and quick relocation, if necessary — such as in sudden rain.
Once per game, they go on the field between innings and perform a small dance routine with the team’s promotional staff, Lemus said.
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“Watching our players connect with residents at Valley Senior Living and seeing the joy the Sparks bring to our fans has been incredible,” he said in a VSL online post. “They’ve become a true part of our team, and the support they’ve received from the community has exceeded anything we could have imagined.”
Sparks’ performances “have become a highlight of the game-day experience,” according to the VSL post, “while their relationships with players and fans continue to demonstrate the positive impact sports can have in bringing generations together.”
‘Absolutely wonderful’
Upon learning of the opportunity to form a cheerleading squad, Nannette Hoeger, a VSL life enrichment director, said she talked with, and got buy-in from, her staff and then sought out “(residents) we thought would enjoy it.”
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At the games, the Spitfires staff has been “absolutely wonderful,” Hoeger said. “They’ve waited on us hand and foot — ‘do you need water?’ They bring us food.”
Connecting residents with activities outside the home improves the residents’ quality of life.
“I’m a firm believer that it’s important for them to stay active out in the community,” she said, adding, “We do a lot of volunteer-type things in the community.”
Cheering the Spitfires has been wonderful for the residents, Grosgebauer said. “It’s an opportunity to be connected to the community, to get out and enjoy sunshine and the summertime weather. … They have become fan favorites, proving that enthusiasm and community spirit have no age limit.”
