00:00 It's about having fun and also creating healthy lifestyles. These young girls
00:04 were being exposed to the sport of chair leading at the Southern Regional Indoor
00:08 Sports Arena in Pleasantville. The name of the program is the Pink Rain Letter
00:12 Play Chair Initiative. It falls under the Ministry of Sport and Community
00:17 Development and is facilitated by the Trinidad and Tobago Chair Federation.
00:21 Speaking of which, Kathy Buckmeyer, who's in charge of operations and
00:25 administration at the Federation, is the program coordinator of this initiative.
00:30 Her team also visited other parts of the country such as the East, Central and
00:35 West before heading South. It is amazing that just to see what it is that these
00:40 young girls would have been able to achieve in just three weeks, three weeks
00:46 with three hours, what they would have achieved learning chair, jumps, motions,
00:52 stunts and even some tumbling, right? There are many opportunities for those
00:58 interested in the sport and Buckmeyer says children can be introduced to the
01:03 sport from a tender age. Added to that, she answers the question on whether or
01:08 not males participate in such a sport. Our ages start as low as five years old
01:14 and competing in chair we have up to 18 years old, 19 years old. We have also
01:21 initiated programs within the Federation where those who would have felt like
01:27 athletes, who would have felt like they have passed the stage for competing, can
01:31 actually go on to get certified as a coach. Now, is it cheerleading just for
01:37 females? No, that is a misconception. We do welcome males and believe it or not,
01:43 males are some of the powerful driving force, be it for or for some of these stunts
01:50 that we see in cheerleading, there's something called a basket toss and the
01:54 muscle and the strength that a male can contribute to that particular stunt
02:00 would be greatly different than what females can do. Another person involved
02:07 in this program is Hazel Ann Paul. She is the physical education and sports
02:12 officer attached to the Ministry of Sport and Community Development. The
02:16 initiative of this program came from us wanting to encourage women and girls to
02:22 become active in activities and so we use non-traditional sporting activities
02:30 to get them involved and we found that chair fit perfectly with what we wanted
02:36 to achieve. So we know that this program has created a buzz because a lot of
02:43 people didn't know about chair. They believe that chair is what they see when
02:48 they watch CPL. You know, that's entertainment but chair is really
02:52 something that's very structured, it's discipline, it helps the girls with their
02:56 flexibility. Parents who want to get their children involved in cheerleading
03:01 can contact the Federation at 732-4220.
03:09 [BLANK_AUDIO]
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