Four lucky girls from the dance team had the opportunity to spend the Thanksgiving break in The Big Apple. Ally Verburgge, Kiara Jesse, Madeline Bequeaith and Olivia Warner participated in the parade. 

Over the summer, the North Polk Dance Team attended a summer camp in Des Moines. “The girls worked with various choreographers and teachers from all genres of dance,” described dance team coach, Angie Jacobs. She continues, “The teachers would choose dancers that really stood out to them.  At the end of each day, the girls who received stand out ribbons were acknowledged as being on the ‘honor roll’.”

The dancers that made the honor roll had the opportunity to participate in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade this year. Out of the 11 North Polk dancers, nine of them were nominated for the honor roll. Out of the nine girls that placed, only four of them decided to fundraise for the trip to New York City. To fundraise the team sold water and pop during RVTV this year. 

Jesse described her experience, “Being in the parade was such a cool experience. We started our day very early because we had to be ready to go at 5:45am. We rehearsed the dance a couple times before getting on the subway to go line up, and we waited there until it was our turn to go. It was very cold, but it is something I will never forget. The parade was around 3 miles total, and people lined the streets the whole way. The parade ended at Macy’s where we performed the dance we had been rehearsing all week. It was an amazing and unforgettable experience.”

Other than the parade the girls saw the Broadway show “Six” and a Rockettes show and the Statue of Liberty