CHEERLEADING: HORSEHEADS' GIAMMICHELE HAS EXPERIENCE OF A LIFETIME AT MACY'S THANKSGIVING DAY PARADE (2021-11-29)

By Brian Fees
Southern Tier Sports Report
For a lot of people their Thanksgiving day begins with turning on the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade and watching it from home.

For Horseheads sophomore Olivia Giammichele her day began by putting on a cheerleading uniform and performing in the the parade.

“This was probably the best week of my entire life,” Giammichele said. “It was amazing, it was really exciting.”

For the Horseheads cheerleader she always watched the parade growing up. One thing that always stood out to her were the cheerleaders and she made the effort to try and find what it would take to become one.

Giammichele sent in a tape of herself and then auditioned and wound up getting the chance to join cheerleaders from throughout the country in the parade.

“For sure, this was the best experience I could ask for,” Giammichele said. “It was always special before (the parade), it was a tradition to watch it. Now that I was in that parade I will definitely keep the tradition going of watching it every year.

This was truly magical. Leading up to it when I was walking the parade it didn’t feel real for me. The whole time the amount of people that were there and then right when we started performing I was thinking this is crazy, I can’t believe I’m here performing. I got to meet great people, friends I’ll definitely have for the rest of my life.”

It wasn’t just one day for Giammichele as it was a week-long experience in New York City.

“I got there last Saturday and I immediately got there and checked in,” Giammichele said. “Once everybody got there we went to practice from six to 10:30 and then the next day we got up and practiced the entire day, like seven hours. It was super packed with rehearsals on Saturday and Sunday.”

While the first couple days were a lot of practice, there was a lot of time to experience NYC during the week.

“It was so much fun,” Giammichele said. “I got to go to the big Macy’s, the Statue of Liberty Harbor Cruise, which was amazing, so much fun. I got to do that with my new roommates, they were amazing. I got to go to the Oculus, which is like a big mall. I got to go to so many things. We got to see the Broadway Show ‘Six’, which is the best Broadway show I’ve ever seen and we got to see the Christmas Spectacular with the Rockettes. I got to go ice skating with my family, which was super fun.”

A lot of the activities during the week were with the other cheerleaders.

“Basically all the things I did was as a group, but parents could come along as well, except the ice skating that was just me and my family,” Giammichele said. “We did fun things between rehearsals. We never really had down time there.”

Getting to meet different cheerleaders from around the country was a lot of fun for Giammichele.

“It was amazing, I probably met some of my newest best friends, they were amazing and super nice, they were from all over the place,” Giammichele said. “Actually both of my roommates were from Florida. I met a bunch of people from New Mexico and Texas and Louisiana, but really they were from all the states.”

It was also special for Giammichele to have her family with her.

“It was really great to have them there,” Giammichele said. “This is a once in a lifetime experience, something I will never have an opportunity to do again. To have them here and be able to experience things with them was really awesome.”

The parade itself was something special.

“It honestly felt magical and unreal, it really did,” Giammichele said. “While we were walking from the begging of the parade to the actual Macy’s where you would perform we did cheers like you would see on a high school sideline. When we got to Macy’s we did a performance and that was what was on the national television.”

Cheering in front of so many people was a little scary at times, but a lot of fun for the Horseheads student.

“I was definitely nervous performing in front of that many people, but it was amazing,” Giammichele said. “The choreographers that taught us were amazing, the people I was performing with were also really good. Overall it was an amazing experience.

“There were a lot of people there (at the parade), especially in front of Macy’s and along the parade route to. They were all cheering for us.”

On Thanksgiving night Giammichele got a chance to watch the performance on a big screen.

“The night of Thanksgiving we all had a big party and we watched the performances on the big screen,” Giammichele said.

Now that she is home Giammichele knows that she’ll be telling her teammates all about the experience.

“I am really excited, I know they are excited to hear about it,” she said. “I had some asking me, they were all saying good luck, they are excited, I’m excited.”

Cheering at an event like the Macy’s Parade is something that Giammichele knows will just make her a better cheerleader in the future.

“Definitely, because the environment was very fast paced,” she said. “I had to learn everything very fast. It helped me to be able to pick up the different routines faster. It will probably improve me overall.”

This was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for Giammichele, but she hasn’t ruled out trying to do it one more time while she’s in high school.

“I would definitely like to do it again, but I’m not really sure,” she said. “Perhaps my senior year, but it is definitely a once in a lifetime opportunity, but I could possibly do it again. I’d have to re-audition and everything, so I’m not sure.”
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IN TOP PHOTO: Horseheads’ Olivia Giammichele. . . PROVIDED PHOTOS