The weekend of December 1 and 2, Junior Erica Baxa travelled to Disneyworld in Orlando, Florida to march in Disney’s Christmas Extravaganza parade. The parade will air on ABC on Christmas Day. We asked her to write about the experience.

After hours of hard work, walking onto Main Street at Disneyworld was one of the best feelings for the 550 National Cheerleaders Association (NCA) and National Dance Association (NDA) performers in Disney’s Christmas Extravaganza. Many high schools cheerleading teams participate in NCA summer camps. While at the camps, staff members award hard working girls with nominations to try out for the All-American team.

To a high school cheerleader, this can mean a lot and provide multiple opportunities including participating in Disney’s Christmas Extravaganza. From Northern, a number of the Freshman, JV, and Varsity girls were nominated, and a select seven made the All American Team. These girls include seniors Sarah Watterson, Danielle Bowman, and Zanna Powell, junior Sarah Donbullian, and sophomores Caitlin Bowman and Makayla Kite, and myself. In the end, I was the only one who participated in this event.

Going alone was very intimidating, and meeting people was hard for me. I’d much rather just stay to myself. But my buddy staff member, Avery, introduced me to Mary Hannah Flecsh, and we hung out together for the rest of our trip. Put into our line for our performance, we were grouped in four different color groups. In each color group, we were told to form a group of five with people we knew or wanted to be with. Looking around the group, I noticed Mary Hannah and quickly moved to sit with her. Luckily, we were put in the same line right next to each other. Throughout the three transitions in the routine, we did not leave each other’s side. We were lucky because it made it easier for us to line our selves up knowing we could just follow each other.

When we met with our actual buddy group, we had to introduce ourselves, say where we were from, and tell an interesting fact about ourselves. As I was listening to the girls introduce themselves, I heard three girls say that they were from Calvert County, Maryland. When it was my turn, we were all in shock. Six girls from Maryland went to this Parade, all from Calvert County. Three from Calvert High School, two from Patuxent High and me from NHS. We all thought it was weird and coincidental.

The parade was filmed over two days with each group performing for the cameras. Walking backstage after our performance, I started hearing all the girls around me screaming. I looked up, and Nick Cannon was smiling and waving as we walked by. We also got the opportunity to see Colbie Caillat, Lady Antebellum, and Phillip Phillips preform. It was really cool, considering I’ve only ever been to two concerts.

After the performance was over I was released and was able to hang out with my family for the rest of the time. We went to two other parades, went to three shows and rode many rides. My favorite show was the American Idol Experience. You went into a studio set up just like the American Idol Stage. Earlier that morning they had auditions and people were able to try out to perform, get voted for, and have the chance of going to an actual American Idol audition. Twelve people were chosen and broken into four different shows. The four winners from each show competes in the finale and the winner received the dream ticket to the actual audition.

Overall, the trip was a great experience. I’ve been watching this parade on ABC almost every year since I was a child. I did learn that it isn’t an actual parade. They break it up into two days and tape it in sections. We preformed our routine four times before we could walk off. It was also very scripted. I definitely didn’t expect it to be like that. I had a lot of fun and enjoyed meeting Mary Hannah and seeing the girls from Calvert and Patuxent, and having a great time with my family. Given the opportunity, I would do it again next year!

–Erika Baxa, The Patriot Press