By CRISTINA JANNEY
Hays Post
ELLIS — Girls 2 to 9 dressed in the their pajamas and headed out to the Washington Elementary School gym Friday morning for a daytime slumber party.
Pom Poms and Pillows is an annual Ellis Recreation Commission event hosted by the Ellis High School cheerleaders. Thirty-two girls and 13 cheerleaders participated this year
The younger girls learn a dance from the older girls that they will perform at halftime of the EHS basketball came against Hill City on Jan. 17.
"It gets the cheerleaders out there with the little girls so the little girls get to know them," said Kristi Bittel, head EHS cheer coach. "When the [girls] go to the game, the [cheerleaders] are good role models. I think it is good leadership for my cheerleaders because they know the little girls look up to them."
Cheerleaders Morgan Bittel, junior, and Michaela Keller, junior, are in their second year assisting with the youth cheer event. They both said they dreamed of being high school cheerleaders when they were little girls.
Both of girls had also attended similar events when they were little.
"It is cool to see them show up to the basketball game and be so excited to be out with the high school cheerleaders," Morgan Bittel said.
Keller said, "I remember being them and wanting to do this, and I just want to give them that fun that we had. That is what really makes me love to do this."
In addition to learning the cheer, the girls did a craft, ate snacks and watched a movie.
