Hammonton 22-year-old featured as Eagles calendar girl

Scott Cronick’s Blog
Press of Atlantic City
July 22, 2010

A 22-year-old Hammonton resident will not only return to grace the pages of the Philadelphia Eagles Cheerleaders calendar this year, she will be on the cover.

Ivelisse Rivera sports a brown, thong-like bikini made of 100 percent organic material as the eco-friendly calendar focuses on the importance of preserving the world’s oceans. Ten percent of the calendar’s sales will be donated to the Gulf Restoration Network to assist in its cleanup efforts of the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

Rivera, as well as 37 other Eagles cheerleaders, shot the 16-month calendar in Riviera Maya, Mexico. Rivera said getting chosen for the cover was a surprise.

“I was totally shocked when I found out that I was going to be on the cover,” said Rivera, a registered dental assistant for a dental practice in Vineland. “Some of it was luck because it rained for some of the days we were shooting there in May. My morning started cloudy, but it turned into a gorgeous day.”

Rivera is also seen inside the calendar for August 2011 wearing bikini bottoms with “Save the Chagos” imprinted on them. The Chagos Archipelago, in the Indian Ocean, was established as the largest marine protected-area in the world. Rivera hopes she can raise awareness to get even more people involved.

The calendar goes hand-in-hand with environmental projects that the cheerleaders are actively involved with year-round.

“I really like that the calendar is helping the efforts in the Gulf,” said Rivera, the first Hispanic to be on the cover. “We went to the Delaware River, and we cleaned up more than 600 pounds of trash. People throw so much in the river, and a lot of that ends up in our oceans.”

The calendar is available online and at bookstores nationwide. For a link to buy the calendar, click here.