Cheer Squad competes in international event on European trip filled with history and culture

The BYU Cheer Squad enjoyed a 13-day European competition and tour this summer that included participating in the FC Amsterdam 2024 Competition, sightseeing, service and temple attendance.

A total of ... cheer squad members were on the trip, along with coaches, staff members and administrators. The trip included stops in Amsterdam, Netherlands; Bruges, Belgium; Luxembourg City, Luxembourg; Normandy, France; and Paris, France.

At each location visited, different members of the cheer squad wer assigned to give 5-10 minute lessons on the country and the area. Facts ranged from historical to funny or odd things about the cities and towns.

Amsterdam

After an overnight flight from Salt Lake City to Amsterdam, the group visited the Keukenhof Tulip Garden and a walking tour of Amsterdam before checking into the hotel.

The next day, the group visited the Anne Frank House and took a boat trip from Marken to Voldenham. In the evening, the goup did a canal cruise.

Day three of the trip was competition day. The squad competed in the FC Amsterdam 2024 Competition. The event involved different youth teams from various divisions and provided the participants the opportunity to connect and get to know each other, sharing their different backgrounds and cultures. The Cougars won the 1st Division title.

An unexpected challenge before the competition came when the group discovered that Cosmo had forgotten his tail. After some initial panic and exploring options, it was Head Coach Jocelyn Allen's 16-year-old daugher Maicyn who was on the trip and came to the rescue. She thrifted a coat from a street market in Amsterdam, borrowed 40 tiny sewing kits from the front desk of the hotel and stayed up until 2 a.m. to hand-stitch a new Cosmo tail in time for the competition.

Day four, Sunday, included a sacrament meeting with a local congregation in the morning, visiting The Hague Temple and sightseeing in the afternoon, which included windmills. The group then departed for Bruges.

Bruges

The group spent just one day in Bruges, which included a lot of free time to shop, eat and wander the market square. The group also did a canal cruise.

The next monring, the group traveled to Luxembourg.

Luxembourg

In Luxembourg the group visited the Notre Dame Cathedral along with the Luxembourg American Cemetery. The cemetery covers 50.5 acres and honors 5,074 Americans who died in the second world war. The cemetery was about to close upon the groups arrival, but fortitously, the superintendent of the cemetery noticed it was a BYU group and came over to investigate. The superintednet happened to be Nathan Jellen, a BYU alum who majored in French at BYU and now lives in Luxembourg with his wife and son. He was able to keep the cemetery open and give the group a tour.

The group departed for Paris the next morning.

Paris and Normandy

The first thing the goup did in Paris was a refugee service project. The kids at the service project had made signs for each cheerleader out of scraps of cardboard they had collected. They each held their signs and jumped up and down as the group arrived. Kylie Wood helped lead the event from the BYU side, as she spoke French with the kids and was able to teach them crowd cheers.

The next day, the group did baptisms at the Paris Temple in the mprning and sightseeing in the afternoon. A remarkable experience happened in the temp as Mandy Beus was baptized for someone who happened to have her same last name. After coming out of the temple, she checked her family search app and realized it was a direct relative of hers that she previously didn't know of. The ordinance had already been recorded, noting that the work had been done in the Paris temple that day by Mandy.

On the third day in france, the group traveled to the Normandy America Cemetery and Museum.

The next day, goups visited the Louvre, Pantheon, Champs Elyesees, Arc de Triomphe and other cultural sites.

The next day was the last full day on the trip, another Sunday, and the group attented the Paris Lilas Ward together.