2010 Buffalo Jills Day of Dance and Comedy Show-revisited

In late February of 2010, the Eastern Hills Mall was once again the setting for an event put on to help improve people's health, this event sponsored by Kaleida Health, designed to help teach families about staying healthy through dance. I showed up a little late thanks to traffic and the weather myself but the Jills performed before I got there and then handed out info on the Jr Jills program and on Jills auditions coming up.  Other groups performed dances as well, including one that put on a West African dance routine and invited several members of the audience up on stage to learn and participate. Valerie and Lisa, there at the event in civvies to support their squadmates, were part of that group that learned some West African dance moves.

Jackie, Ayeshia, Eileen, Loren, and Omarlla at the Day of Dance with a little fan

The 3 Musketeers, Kristen, Nicole, and Alyssa

The evening's appearance was a little bigger, the annual Buffalo Jills Adult Comedy Show at Club Paradise in Blasdell. In addition to the above-mentioned performance, there were 3 comedians who took the stage to entertain the crowd. First up was local comedian Dan Pordum, who put on a show talking about, among other things, how much better Buffalonians handle bad weather than other people around the nation.  The 2nd comedian onstage was no stranger to Jills fans as he'd been running the 103.3 The Edge Away Game Parties the past 2 seasons. I'm talking of course about Edge DJ and Program Director James. The final comedian, Jocko Alston, was from Montreal and touched on a variety of topics including how similar dance styles actually are and raved about how beautiful Buffalo women are, based on the solid representation from the Buffalo Jills. Jocko had a few DVDs out on the market and, at the end of the show, sold some with a portion of the sales going to the Jills Calendar Shoot fund, helping cover some of the costs of the Jills' trip to Jamaica in May to shoot their 2010-2011 Swimsuit Calendar. Sadly, Jocko passed away later in the year but while we can no longer see him onstage anymore, we can see more about him on YouTube.

squad photo with Jocko Alston

Of course no Jills event was ever complete without a dance performance and Jackie, Loren, Eileen, Omarlla, and Ayeshia made sure to keep the crowd fully enthralled when they weren't laughing with the comedy acts onstage.

Blondes! Eileen, Christina, Jess, Heather, and Amanda

Pro Bowl Dan with Omarlla, Eileen, Christina, and Jess

One thing that I, as someone who's gotten to know many of the Jills over the years, looks forward to with these events, is when Jills alumni show up to support their former squadmates. I'm not alone in this by any means as current members of the squad get pretty excited to see former squadmates show up as well. This event featured longtime Jills Ambassador Captain Kelly (2002-08) as well as a pair of 2005-07 alumni in Autumn and Rachael, all of whom posed for pictures as if they had never left the squad. There was also one more extra celebrity in the crowd as Pro Bowl Dan made the trip up from Virginia to take in the show and take some photos. For anyone who's not sure who Pro Bowl Dan is, he's been going to every Pro Bowl for the past several years and has been getting a lot of good shots of all the Pro Bowl Cheerleaders for UltimateCheerleaders.com

alums Autumn and Rachael with the last remaining member of their 2005 rookie class, Katie K

See all the pics at https://buffaloprocheerbuffalojills.shutterfly.com/pictures/7309
From the Bandettes comes a photo from before the April game against the New England Black Wolves. Shown smiling for the camera is rookie Brittany as she's stationed to sell game programs. After one of her closest friends spent a season on the Jills, she decided to do the same, but with the Bandettes after getting her family started. Sadly, Brittany followed Jena's example again and called it a career after a season, presumably to spend more time with her young family. Considering how active Jena is as a Jills alum though, hopefully we'll see plenty of Brittany at Bandettes alum events.

Brittany