Drill Team Love

 Courtney Worthington (Kyle’s younger sister, Wednesday, 1/19/22) 

On Friday, January 14th, my drill team (dance team) girls surprised me by telling me they each got the t-shirt that is being used to fundraise for my brother and his family. It was a shock, and I was so grateful that they would do that for me. I also found out that their parents and family members also got the t-shirt and all of them were planning to wear it to our competition the next day.

Days after the accident happened, I had a practice with them, and it was the first time I had smiled that week. The drill team girls have seen me in the most raw positions. When my brother called me to talk to me, I was in the middle of a practice, and they saw the tears stream down my face and they each held on to me and told me it was going to be ok. Teenagers these days are pretty incredible.

On Saturday, January 15th, I showed up to the school bus to travel going to our competition in my own special shirt to find all the girls in their shirts along with their parents who were sending them off. It was an incredible feeling that came over me of gratitude and love.

When we arrived at the competition, the girls wore their shirts until it was time to compete. At the end of their 3rd dance, and the conclusion of the dance competition, I was stopped by one of the team moms and told to not walk away to meet up with my team. I turned around and asked why and she said, “don’t worry, but you need to stay here”. She had a microphone in her hand, and I started to understand what she was doing. When I looked to see if my team had made it off the floor, I saw them each walking back onto the floor with signs in their hands and buckets. That is when the mom began talking to the audience and explaining what happened to my brother and his family. I began crying because I had absolutely no idea that this had been planned. The drill team girls held up the signs that showed the Venmo account and walked up and down the bleachers where they collected cash.

At the end of the night, I had many individuals coming up and asking what more they could do, what their company could do, and local businesses that were there donating even more.

I’m grateful for my assistant coach who was able to organize this and kept it from me for weeks. She is also the one who organized the team having the shirts. Thank you, Jourdan, for all your love and support.

All together when we were able to count up how much was raised with the Venmo account added in it was a total of $1,674. That amount of money raised in just a few moments is heartwarming and incredible. I’m so thankful to those in the world I work in that are willing to donate and help in any way they can. From the company that donated $100 to the grandma that found me after the competition and gave me $1.00 because that is all she had in her wallet, I am truly grateful and touched.  

I hope we can all remember that there is still very much good in this world and that people are good. There is still love and support. We need to remember that when things get hard or when emotions are high, there is always someone out there willing to help and give their love and prayers.

#CopelandStrong