Kids Day, Jr Jills, a former Jill in DC, and more tryout photos

First off, with 2 home preseason games, the Bills had a choice of dates to use as their annual Kid's Day game. This year, the Kid's Day game will be held on Saturday, August 15th, the Bills' matchup against Jay Cutler and the Chicago Bears. While more details on Kid's Day will be released at a later date by the Bills, in past years the Kid's Day festivities included a big interactive area set up outside the stadium with a lot of the features that are normally inside the Fieldhouse on gamedays. As a part of that, the Jills Ambassador Squad will be on hand to sign autographs before the game. There will also be a big pregame performance featuring the Jills dancers with the Jr Jills that night as well.

Regarding the Jr Jills, it's for girls ages 7-17 and the program costs $275 apiece with a $50 discount for each additional sibling. Uniform fittings are in June and the workshops will be held on consecutive weekends at the end of July. Get more details at http://buffalojills.net/appearances/details.php?recordID=23 and at http://buffalojills.net/junior_jills/index.php

The Washington Redskins cheerleaders were also a part of their team's draft festivities this past weekend and there's a familiar face in their midst. After some time spent with the Baltimore Ravens cheerleaders, Sarita (2004 Jills) has joined up with the Redskins cheerleaders in 2009. James from Ultimate Cheerleaders.com was on hand for the event http://www.ultimatecheerleaders.com/posts/3923 and sends us these photos of our former Buffalo Jill. http://www.mediafire.com/?sharekey=01011309fb6e824c7069484bded33bcd527e086936758802

Finally, 97Rock has another album of photos up from the 1st round of Jills tryouts that were held at the Town Ballroom. Check it out at http://www.97rock.com/Article.asp?id=1285509&spid=21992

Party in the Plaza this Saturday

The Buffalo Bandits are inviting fans to come down early to HSBC Arena this Saturday prior to the NLL East Division Semifinal playoff game against the Boston Blazers to share in the excitement of the playoffs at the pre-game Plaza Party. Game time is 7:30 p.m.

The party will run from 5-7 p.m. outside HSBC Arena in the Plaza area located near Perry and Illinois Street. Fans can enjoy live music from The Strictly Hip, along with food and drink available for purchase. There will also be special appearances from the Bandettes and Rax. The party will take place rain or shine with free admission, as a game ticket will not be required for entrance to the party.

http://www.bandits.com/newsarchive.cfm?id=844

Draft Day Party at the Ralph

In a way to help commemorate the Buffalo Bills' 50th season and to provide a little something extra to their loyal season ticket holders, the Buffalo Bills opened up Ralph Wilson Stadium to the fans during Day 1 of the draft. More than 5000 season ticket holders showed up for the event, some traveling several hours to get there. As should be no surprise, many fans tailgated before they opened the gates while music was heard from inside the stadium to which many of the Buffalo Jills dancers made sure their dance moves were polished before the crowds came inside.

When the gates opened, fans got to meet and pose with several members of the Jills Ambassador Squad before heading down to the field, the stands, and into the Jim Kelly Club. On the field, concessions were set up at reduced prices and many of the set ups that are normally inside the Fieldhouse on gamedays were spread around the field for fans to test out their football skills, including a few drills from the NFL Scouting Combine. On a stage in front of the scoreboard endzone, the 50th Anniversary Bills team was announced and those vaunted players had their jerseys on display. Out on the field in front of the stage, fans mingled with friends they haven't seen since the end of the football season and many posed for photos with the Buffalo Jills who were out and about. On the stadium's HD scoreboard, the Bills ran ESPN's live coverage of the draft with the volume shut off on only 2 occasions. About a half hour into the draft, the Jills took the stage to put on 4 rousing dance performances, including a couple that were part of the tryout process. After the Bills made their first pick of the draft, the Jills returned to the stage to repeat their earlier performances for the benefit of those who might've missed the first time...or for those who just wanted to see Buffalo's beauties perform on stage again.

Another part of the draft day celebration was an exclusive tour of the Bills locker room. Fans got to go through where the Bills get dressed for gamedays and see the lockers of players like Donte Whitner, Lee Evans, Terrell Owens, and Marshawn Lynch among others. At the end of the tour, fans went through the room where the Bills players and coaches answer questions from the media after every game. Obviously it wasn't in use for that on this day but it was still getting use as fans got to pose for pictures with a pair of Buffalo Jills...no better way to end the tour.

http://s15.photobucket.com/albums/a375/buffalojills2005/2009/Draft%20Day/

Check back later to get names of many of these beautiful rookies whose names aren't listed with their photos at the moment.
Coming up next for the Jills, several will be at the corner of Walden and Union for the Buffalo News Kid's day sale on the 28th.
On May 2nd, you can find Jills at events at Coca-Cola Field, Sweet Home School, Tioga Downs, and at the Pizza Fest at Hearthstone Manor.
On May 16th, the Jills will invade Club Paradise in Blasdell for their annual Congratulatory Party. Included as part of this event are raffles, some hot dance performances, and a rookie initiation. Hopefully our 15 rookies are studying up on Bills trivia between now and then as Jickster asked last year's rookies some difficult Bills trivia questions as part of the initiation.
Stay tuned to the Buffalo Pro Cheer Blog and to buffalojills.net for all the latest on the 2009 Buffalo Jills!

Bandette of The Week Maggie

This week's Bandette of The Week is rookie redhead Maggie. Besides this being her first season on the squad it may likely be her only one as well. Back home in Buffalo for a year or so while her husband is deployed in Afghanistan, Maggie wanted to find a few outlets for her endless energy and dancing alongside the Bandettes was a natural choice for her. Dancing hasn't been her only focus as she's also been putting forth a lot of effort into getting herself set up as a wedding planner, a career that she'll find herself in demand to do no matter where her husband is stationed. You can read more about Maggie at http://www.bandits.com/bandette-09-maggie.cfm

Buffalo Jill of The Week Jill R

This week, we take a look at one of the 2008-09 Jills squad's early departures in Ambassador Jill R. She actually started out her Jills career as a dancer in 2007 but a few weeks into the season switched to the Ambassador Squad because of all the time commitment. Unfortunately, that was why she left the 2008 squad early as well. When she joined the squad, she didn't come alone as her fraternal twin sister Joy joined up as well. A few months after making the final cuts in 2007, she became that squad's sole rookie on a trip to visit and entertain troops in Afghanistan in August of that year along with Eileen, Stefanie, and Jenica as well as since-departed vets Autumn, Emily, Melissa, Jessica Z, and Kaitlin B. After attaining a degree in math/science, she turned her educational attentions to nursing and is currently working on her degree in that field. To check out her bio, log on to the Buffalo Jills webgroup at http://sports.groups.yahoo.com/group/buffalojills/ where we've uploaded a copy on her 2008 bio in the files section for the week.