Spirit Gifts for Cheerleading

Since this is your first year, keep it simple so you have room to move up! I've done really cute cowbells from the Party Store (any party store will have a spirit section). The small cowbells are really inexpensive, use paint pens to decorate and tie ribbons on the handles. I've also done plastic cups in a solid team color, used paint pens to decorate and fill with candy. Wrap in platic wrap and tie with ribbon. You can even make the tie offs part of the gift, use pony tail holders and a higher quality ribbon for matching pony tail ribbons. Cut the strands of ribbon long so they hang the length of the pony tail...very cute. I recommend keeping all the homecoming items "mini" sized....you have to leave the full sized stuff for high school so they have something to look forward to!

Last year I coached a PeeWee Football team and what we did is everyone ordered buckets to use all year. We used Autograph Sign Shop in Arlington and they were just $20.00 already decorated for all the girls. You could also do some type of Duffle bags too. Check out Etsy as they have tons of cute stuff.

Homecoming I went to a place called The Sale Place and you can buy all the supplies in Bulk to make Mums. It came to about $10.00 a kid and we had all the parents come over and make the mums (we did small ones as they had to cheer in them) and made them all look the same. For the football players we did Spririt sticks which was a dal-rod with ribbon hanging down with footballs attached to the top with bells. The parents held them during the games. We also made all the parents picture buttons for homecoming also.

The end of year gifts we did dog tags with the team name and girls name and the football players got there name and number on them. We did these for $5.00 a piece.

For stuff like this it was great to have the team moms for the cheerleading and football to work together to come up with stuff. I would come up with stuff before it ever starts and let the parents know what the cost is and collect the money all at one time with letting them know this is what we plan on spending but if it is over we will let you know what the difference is.

I had a couple of parents that complained about everytime we collected money so I just asked for it upfront and anything left over we used to go toward our end of year party. Let me know if I can help you with any other questions.

The girls could get new hair bows for one game. Those are easy and they can always use them. How about those little drawstring bags that they can use as backpacks? You can make those relatively inexpensively and easily. That could be for the first game so that the girls can keep all their things together and they would all be the same. You can embroider their initials on them if you want or something... You might get Chick-fil-a to bring the cow out to one of the games. That's always fun and the cow usually brings coupons for a free sandwich. If you don't have a Chick-fil-a, maybe the McDonalds will send a Hamburgler or something.
YMMV
LBC

First game could be those little spirit buckets with seats for lids or a cute duffle that they can use all season. Homecoming - ribbons, tons of ribbons put together, like a mum, but that parents can use their child's picture button to hold onto jacket or the girls can pin on to their uniform with a mum. last game, cute little awards like "always smiling" or "best high kick", etc.

Have fun:)