Junior Cheer

The Junior Cheerleaders program has begun and let me tell you, that adds a whole new dimension to my job. This year there are about 100 girls ages 7-14 who have signed up to be in this program. So it has been Heather and my job to get all their paper work sorted, all their money collected, all the measurements forms submitted to the seamstress and all the parents' questions answered.

And I have learned- 7 to 14 year old parents take Jr. Cheer seriously. They ask every question imaginable, and quite honestly even ones I would have never imagined would have been asked. They also go crazy for the merchandise that we sell and the tickets that they are able to purchase for the games their daughters cheer at.

But, back to the basics about this program: girls who sign up pay $345 for a uniform (which looks exactly like the pro cheerleaders), a bowling party, a glam day, and two Game Day appearances where they get to cheer on the field! In all honesty, I kind of wish I would have know about this program when I was younger :D

At any rate, we've already held an initial uniform fitting for them and we just had the bowling party. At the uniform fitting we had our seamstress there with every size of the uniform-so ranging from child's sizes to adult sizes. Some of these 14 year olds are bigger than me! And each girl when around the room trying on the uniform, to find which best fits her. What's more a handful of girls decided to sign up the same day and we had to keep track of payments for all girls! Chaos. It's the only word that comes to mind to best describe this evening.

A few days later then we could relax a bit more...we got to bowl! Almost all 42 cheerleaders were present to bowl with the Jr. Cheerleaders. And let me tell you, the little girls thought this was the best thing ever! In addition we brought posters for the cheerleaders to sign, so these girls were going around to every cheerleader there and filling their posters with autographs!

This event was so much fun to be a part of! Here are a few photo highlights (note the creative names two lanes came up with!):





And, of course, I must end with the lovely group photo :D This group of girls are awesome! I am so lucky to have the internship that I do!!

Fair Oaks Farms: Every Day Extraordinary

Two hours north west of the complex, lies a rather quaint place called Fair Oaks Farm. But don't be fooled, it's no small farm. Rather it's the world's largest dairy farm.

Four cheerleaders and myself joined the Colts Summer Tour staff at Fair Oaks Farm. For the first two hours the girls signed autographs (like they usually do on these stops). Yet they were given a drink to get through the two hours...
Milk, from their farm, of course!!

Afterwards was the part of this appearance that made it stand out from others... The owner of the farm packed the four girls, myself and security into his truck and we went on our way to tour the farm. Typical visitors ride their new cow buses to see the farm and follow the tour, pretty cool still. But on our personal tour we got to see a few extras and got to walk where only workers go.

First stop: we went to see where and how the cows were milked - each cow is milked three times a day. They load themselves onto a milking carousal which goes around and in 8 minutes time the cow is milked. We got to stand in the middle of the vast machine, while the tourers and the cows starred at us. It was quite daunting, especially with the cows noticing us - all heads were positioned our way. I was just glad they were behind the machine and couldn't launch forward!


Second stop: manure collecting barn. We loaded back in the truck and drove past the manure collecting plant (fyi it WAS on Discovery Channel's Dirty Jobs)...let me tell you, it was very deserving of the show. We learned that they have vacuum trucks which go through the barns when the cows are out to be milked and suck up all the manure. Once the trucks are full they empty out into a barn (which is the building we saw) so that it can be processed and used to power the entire farm. Amazing concept, but extremely smelly and a rather disgusting process!!

Third stop: calves!! After taking in these scents of the farm we continued a few miles down the road to visit the calf area!! These little things were (yes, I'll say it) adorable. We got to pet them and feed them! We were told no one else gets to do this, except for those who are hired to do so. Pretty sweet.


Upon completion of our tour of Fair Oaks Farm, we got dinner (and dessert and maybe a little extra!!) We had cheese samples, quesadillas, grilled cheese, milk, milkshakes and ice cream. My chocolate milkshake was the richest, creamiest, most delicious milkshake ever! Needless to say we were in a dairy coma come the ride home, but we had a WONDERFUL visit to Fair Oaks Farms!!! If you ever get the chance to go, GO- I know I want to go back! There were many things we just didn't have the time to do like jump on the pillow or see a cow being birthed (they say that each day there are as many as 120 cows born somewhere on that farm, many of which you can watch). It's an incredible place.

Thank you Fair Oaks Farms for hosting the Colts' Make It Personal Tour!

Just Living the Gold Life!

This entire week my boss has been on vacation. As a result, Heather and I were assigned to a few more tasks and responsibilities than we would have normally had if she had been around. One of these tasks for me was to be the liaison for the Cheer Department in preparing for the Australian Gold Sales Pitch.

We were told the Australian Gold Sales Pitch was a seven-figure deal the Colts were pitching to Australian Gold in hopes of them becoming a key sponsor of the Indianapolis Colts Cheerleaders! For our department this would mean more money for the program, and a few tours to be sponsored by them (tours they went on last year were Mexico City, London, etc. – oh I can only hope for another ideal location!!).

In hopes of getting this deal, the Colts put together quite the show! They wanted to show Australian Gold they knew how to “Live the Gold Life” (their slogan). Sand was brought in to transform the parking lot into a beach. Palm trees, beach chairs and umbrellas, corn hole, beach balls, a volleyball, a grill, tiki hut, and a steal drum band could all be found on this makeshift beach so to make the scene even more realistic. A pilot was even hired to fly around the complex with a banner behind it reading: “Australian Gold – Live the Gold Life!” It could not have been any beachier than this in Indianapolis, Indiana at the Indiana Farm Burea Practice Facility.

There was a tent set up in front of the beach where the CEO and VP of Marketing of Australian Gold and the VP of Marketing and Sponsorship Sales of the Colts sat to take in the scene upon arrival to the location. After being served Cristal they continued on to the real reason they were there: presentation of the proposed business deal. Inside the complex they were in the conference room, which was completely filled with everything related to Australian Gold. So walls had pictures of Colts memorabilia mixed with Australian Gold, tables were lined with Australian Gold product, and a tanning bed!

Sixteen cheerleaders were asked to be involved with this ordeal (it was a very easy appearance credit for them). One of the cheerleaders was asked to serve Crystal Champaign to the guests of honor. Another was stationed inside the conference room, in the tanning bed. So she was asked to pop out like she had just finished tanning. She said to them, “Oh, I didn’t realize this room was occupied! I was just getting my tan in for the day.” Apparently everyone laughed and it placed a little lighter note on the entire event.

All the other girls who were present at the event were asked to lie out on the beach and enjoy the 90-degree weather we had that day! Oh and that was my task as well (along with the 24 other summer interns!) There was plenty of Australian Gold product placed around the beach for them all of us use, so don’t worry dad – no sunburns!!
Here are a few pictures from the afternoon:






















**We found out the end of this week – the Colts made a six figure deal with Australian Gold because of this Sales Pitch!! Success.**

::Aquapalooza::

Saturday the Colts made one of their tour stops at Bella Vita on Geist Lake (just north of Indianapolis). It was a fun switch from the other stops we had been making, complete with a free concert by Sister Hazel. It helped to draw in different crowds in because the location was quite unique for one of our events – we had many boaters stop by! Many rich boaters that is, Bella Vita was charging boaters $300 to park their boat in the spots right outside of their restaurant. Parking a boat in these slips are generally free. Yikes, they were making a killing off of it!

With that said, we still had all the other typical summer tour stuff going on. So all the inflatables were blown up and the lines were still made for fans to get their autographs! This time around the “Colts #1” fans came by and the girls got a photo with them!!

After two groups of four cheerleaders came through for 2 hours each, the autograph sessions were over. So Heather and I headed to the outdoor bar area to listen to the Sister Hazel concert. Remember that song "All for You" that’s how I know who they are!


Another hot afternoon with the Colts, but at least it was spent by the lake!

St. Joe County 4-H Fair!

It is a strange feeling to head north to South Bend, spend a few hours at the fairgrounds, and then turn right back around to arrive in Indianapolis just a few hours later. SO close to home, but never reached.

At any rate, it is always a good time riding in the limo with the girls. I enjoy getting to know people & to get to know each of the cheerleaders on a more personal level is AWESOME! The conversations I've had in the limo range from absolutely hilarious to those serious, more personal ones. All of which help time to pass, and 3 hour rides seem like only minutes.

Since I've been talking all about these summer tour stops we've been making, I feel like it's probably about time that I explain a bit about the set up at the Make it Personal appearances. Each stop this summer has had a similar set up, in the sense that there have been 4 inflatables-football punt, slide, bounce house, and a super large man- in addition to a rock climbing wall, the Colts in Motion vehicle, and a football catch game. Here's what the set-up looked like at the St. Joe Fairgrounds:
We've got some truly awesome fans who wait in line for (what sometimes ends up being) hours!!

After this appearance we got to go to the front of the line for two rides...VIP & back to the glory youth days :D
((to find us in the picture above, look for the row that has the white boots hanging down...HINT:bottom left))

&& we were treated to the BEST fair food: Sirloin tips, red skinned potatoes, onions, and mushrooms!!! (it's even the same guy that goes to the Elkhart fair-what a treat!!)

Happy 4th of July!!

This has to be one of my most memorable fourths yet!

Living downtown provided us with the absolute perfect view for the Indianapolis fireworks - right off our balcony!! What's more is that the way our balcony is situated, we have a panoramic view of the Indy skyline! So no matter where we looked, fireworks were seen. It was truly amazing, absolutely amazing!

They city's main fireworks are launched from the Regions building (the building with green lettering across the top).

&& we most definitely had the ideal seats :D

It's a chicken thing, you wouldn't understand.

Today I got the honor of taking Friday off from work!! But, don't jump to conclusions too fast...because today sleeping in was not a part of it. Nor was any thing that I would typically do. Today was totally out of the norm: I got to visit the Chicken Place!!! aka...
Lucky me, I was up early (a bit to my demise) and driven to Orland, Indiana by Mr. Clayton. Orland is the home to the processing plant for Miller Poultry. Once there I was given a hair net, ear plugs and a fancy white lab coat. Dressed for 40 degree weather, I was ready to be given a tour of the plant - from chicken in cage to chicken in package.

The "city" girl, or non-farmer, has officially watched the killing of thousands of chickens and I didn't pass out, I didn't throw up, and I actually ate breakfast, lunch and dinner! I think a lot had to do with how clean the place was! I honestly did not think a chicken processing plant could be so clean and not have much of a smell to it, but it was!!

So let me describe for you a bit of what I saw: the chickens come live, caged on semi trucks. Once they are unloaded from the trucks they are hung by their feet on a processing line. They enter a dark room so to calm them. At one point while on the line they enter a box like structure which stuns them, literally they go in the box a bit stiff, to come out completely limp. From here their necks a slashed, but not the backbone so that the heart continues pumping. From here the processing line takes them through a plucker, and their feathers are removed to look a little something like this:

From here feet are removed, guts are strategically taken out, the chickens are beheaded and a blood/wet feather mixture gushes through a hole in the floor. Of course there's more detail to it than that, but that's a glorified version. Next chickens are weighed, cut and the parts are separated accordingly - for example: boneless skinless breasts, wings, thighs, tender strips, etc., with about 19 in all! Packaged to look like:

What a day: I am now able to better understand a topic which once seemed so foreign at one point. Now I by no means understand it all (as can easily be told by this novice observation) but I have a greater appreciation for what's done.

And once again I am reminded of my minute role and place in the monstrosity of God's world-how little I know and how much more I can only learn!!

So come Saturday afternoon, its time to head back to Indianapolis..to be with my family and get back to learning more of the Sports Marketing world.