Cheerleading is about spirit, and motivation. Some cheerleading teams find motivation or strength from mascots, or from rituals. Like wearing the same socks or hairdos, anything that they feel helps them. You may have noticed that on Dartmouth High's uniform, we have a gold star. This gold stars means a lot to our team and what we stand for. A lot of us, on DHS, find strength and motivation through these stars because of what it represents for us.

The stars are new this year, because of a certain special person that we thought we should give tribute to. The gold star was put on our uniforms in memory of Gina Smith. Not only a amazing, high spirited cheerleader herself, but an amazing person inside and out! Many of you who are on cheerleading teams, know how much it helps to have someone there, who is always trying to cheer everyone up, or get them pumped up for the upcoming competition. Gina was like that. She made sure no one was ever down, or else they would be in big trouble with her.

Gina passed away due to the infectious killer, which is cancer. Everyone thought she would be ok, as she was in remission for a while. Then she found out that the cancer was back and was spreading yet again. She still stayed strong and kept smiling, no matter what would happen. She still even came to practice in her condition. When people would visit her after she became very ill, she would smile and talk, and make jokes with them. You would never ever see a frown on her face. It was just the kind of person she was. She accomplished so many things in her life, a life which has touched the hearts of the people who knew her. Not only was she Miss Teen Nova Scotia, but Gina also had her wish granted. Unfortunately her trip was cut short, due to her condition, which had worsened at that point.

Our team was deeply affected by the loss of her, as a lot of us had cheered with her on the junior high team, but somehow after time we learned to take strength from her, and her life. We know Gina would have wanted us to be strong, and to keep going. Our stars help us compete, and be the best we can be. When you see us in our huddle before we are about to compete, look for the stars. In most cases they will be pointed out at everyone, so they can see our strength and our motivation, as well as our determination. For a lot of us, we are cheering for Gina.

It is not uncommon to see a Dartmouth High cheerleader press her star onto another Dartmouth High cheerleader's star. This is our way of getting the power. It is also not uncommon to see someone kiss the star for good luck. The star helps when you are not feeling ready to compete, or have a bad attitude towards the sport. We just look at it, and think about what Gina would want to be doing if she were here, cheerleading. Also we think about how lucky we are, that we are on the floor competing.

We know Gina is there in spirit watching us when we compete, screaming at the top of her lungs, her spirit still there. She is always with us, she is our motivation, our strength, but mostly she is our star!

We love you Gina, you are and always will be our star!