Cheerleaders Honored to Visit Military Bases
Four Titans Cheerleaders Will Embark on Trips to Visit Members of the Armed Forces in Alaska, Japan and Djibouti
From TitansOnline:
Four Tennessee Titans Cheerleaders will spend Super Bowl week with brave members of the Armed Forces at bases in Alaska, Japan and Djibouti.
The cheerleaders will join other NFL cheerleaders, mascots and players for the tours, which will feature meet-and-greet, photo, autograph and entertainment sessions with the service members.
Titans Director of Cheerleading Stacie Kinder said the cheerleaders who were selected are thrilled by the “great honor” and the opportunity to lift morale and show appreciation to the service members who protect our freedoms.
“It’s an honor for us to be invited to go on these tours,” Kinder said. “Sometimes it’s a little bit more of a challenge because it’s a smaller market, but I think since we have Fort Campbell so close, so many of our Fort Campbell soldiers are all over the world, so I think they get excited to see their hometown cheerleaders come and visit.”
Tiffany, a 2012 captain who just completed her third season, left for her first Pro Bowl on Monday. She and Titans mascot T-Rac will be participating in many events leading up to Sunday’s Pro Bowl and the game in Honolulu, Hawaii. After completing her assignments in the tropical locale, Tiffany will fly to Alaska and set up camp at Eielson Air Force Base near Fairbanks.
An approximate difference of 70 degrees Fahrenheit between Hawaii and Alaska created a packing challenge, but Tiffany was willing to figure it out because of the unique opportunities.
“She’s thrilled,” Kinder said. “This is the second year a Pro Bowl cheerleader has had the opportunity to travel on. Last year Brooke went from Hawaii to Guam, which was more of an easier transition. This year is a little bit different, but she was equally excited about the opportunity. She actually has a special interest in Alaska. She had previously been kind of discussing going there — possibly not in January and February, but she’s really interested in it so she was thrilled to have the opportunity to be there with our military.”
Tour organizers were so pleased with the job that Brooke did on last year’s trips that they requested her to go to Japan this year, and she will leave early next week for Sasebo Naval Base.
Brooke, a captain who just finished her seventh and final season on the Titans Cheerleaders, rearranged personal plans so she could participate. Brooke grew up near Fort Campbell and has always enjoyed opportunities to support service members.
“They really loved her and how she engages the military and she was specifically requested to return and go to Japan for Super Bowl week, which is a country she’s never been to, and she was thrilled to accept,” Kinder said. “In fact, she moved her engagement party. Her engagement party had been planned for that weekend, and she moved it so she could take advantage of the opportunity to kind of have her last hurrah as a Titans cheerleader.”
Kinder said Jessi, a 2012 captain who just finished her fourth season, and Tandra are excited to team-up for a unique trip to Djibouti, a small country on the east shore of Africa where the Red Sea meets the Gulf of Aden.
“Jessi went to Kuwait last year so she’s a little familiar with that part of the world,” Kinder said. “Aside from Antarctica, (Africa is) the only continent that she hasn’t been to, so she was thrilled to have the opportunity to kind of check that off her bucket list.”
Tandra returned to the squad for her fifth season in 2012 after being away for three years. The trip will enable her to punctuate her time as a Titans Cheerleader as she prepares for her nursing career.
“She kind of came back for a fifth and final season before she begins her career in nursing, so she was really happy to have an opportunity to do this as she closes out her career,” Kinder said.
“It’s a great experience for them both,” Kinder added. “Djibouti, that’s one of those bases where they really need the entertainment and support from us to make it feel like they’re not so far away, so I think of all the trips that we’re going to, the Djibouti one is the most important because they are just out there by themselves in such a different culture, and having the girls there for the Super Bowl will make them feel like they are still Americans.”
