Tigers to compete in Dallas on Saturday and Sunday

Jordan Sytsma was noticeably nervous as she stood to the side and watched her Gilbert competition cheer squad prepare to perform in front of friends, family, and the entire community during halftime of the boys’ basketball game last Friday night.

This was the squad’s last chance for a full out in front of a crowd before it departs on Thursday for the National Cheerleaders Association (NCA) High School Nationals and Sytsma, the Tigers’ head coach, wanted perfection.

No coach ever gets perfection but, hey, they can dream, right?

“Friday was stressful,” Sytsma said. “To put them out in front of the entire community, that’s a pressure cooker. But I was very happy. I’ll always nit-pick things because you’re always striving to be better, but it went really well.”

With a little extra fine-tuning this week, the comp cheer squad hopes it will perform even better this weekend when it steps onto the big stage inside the Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center in Dallas, Texas, for nationals. Competing in the Small Varsity Game Day Division, the Tigers will showcase their routine during the semifinals on Saturday, and again during the finals on Sunday. The semifinal performance will account for 25 percent of their overall team score, while Sunday’s finals will make up the remaining 75 percent.

Gilbert’s three-minute routine is comprised of a band chant, situational response, and the school fight song. The routine itself was choreographed way back in August, although it had to be put on the back burner somewhat until following the state competition in November.

It’s not an easy routine. It’s not a safe routine. And that’s precisely what the squad’s 14 members — Carly Dolan, Clair Lewis, Grace Lornston, Julia Lewis, Anella Troncoso, Lulu Smith, Liz Fierce, Addie Pink, Payton Crawford, Ella Overman, Olivia Schuelka, Riley Lempiainen, Ava Price, and Blair Hibbing — wanted.

“We’re always pushing ourselves and taking risks, and the kids want that,” Sytsma said. “We’re not going to put out a safe routine. These girls want to be challenged, they want to take risks. We’re going to swing for the fences.”

Gilbert, which won back-to-back Class 3A state cheerleading titles prior to this season’s state runner-up finish, is one of only four schools in Iowa that will compete at nationals. Waukee, Waukee Northwest, and Mason City will join the Tigers in Dallas.

This year’s NCA High School Nationals will be the largest field in the 75-year history of the event. While that may seem daunting, it only adds to the excitement for Gilbert’s cheerleaders and coach. They’ve been together since June, working tirelessly to be ready for those six minutes on mat this weekend.

“The NCA’s tag line is the work is worth it, and I fully believe that,” Sytsma said. “It’s a ton of work, but the goal is to go down and do well. Just the experience of being able to compete on the national level is something I take a lot of pride in, as do the kids. They’re the first group from Gilbert to ever do that.

“This is the big leagues; you’re competing against the best of the best in the nation. Our kids want to go down and they want to win, which we are capable of doing.”

We wish Coach Sytsma and the girls nothing but the very best of luck this weekend. They’ve put in the time. They’ve put in the work. They’re ready. And we know they will represent our school incredibly well.

Family overjoyed, thankful, and looking forward to the future

Amanda Langford is exhausted. Over the past six days, she’s slept sparingly; an hour here, an hour there, but no more as her mind races through the scenarios. As an advanced registered nurse practitioner, she understands the situation better than most and that’s both a blessing and a curse.

She’s a mom, after all, and that’s her baby — Gilbert Middle School sixth grader Zack Langford — laying in the bed attempting to recover from a surgery that saved his life. She worries. Constantly. Who wouldn’t?

“I can’t turn my mom mind off, so I keep problem solving,” Amanda says softly as she sits inside Children’s Mercy Hospital in Kansas City. “But we’re just so happy and so excited.”

The phone call that changed the life of everyone in the family came in at 1:32 a.m. on Friday, Dec. 30, just a few hours after the Langfords had celebrated Christmas at the house of Zack’s grandparents. It was a call that Amanda, her husband Troy, Zack, and younger sibling Zander, a Gilbert Intermediate fourth grader, had dreamed about. Had prayed about. So many times.

Zack was just hours away from getting his new heart.

“Our phone rang … and they told us they had a heart for Zack,” Amanda says. “I let Zack and Zander sleep a little bit, but then we woke up the boys and told them the news and Zack was just overjoyed the second we told him. And Zander’s first words were, ‘Mom, it’s a miracle. We’re in Kansas City and Zack is going to get a heart.’”

It was a long wait, nearly four years since Zack was first diagnosed with restrictive cardiomyopathy, a condition in which the muscles of a heart’s ventricles stiffen and are unable to fill with blood. It’s the rarest form of cardiomyopathy and it generally leads to the need for a heart transplant.

Zack was double-listed on the heart transplant list, both at Children’s Mercy Hospital and the University of Iowa, that’s how dire the situation was starting to become, as the Langford family first shared with us earlier this fall (to read that full story, click here: https://gilbertcsd.org/2022/09/a-heart-of-gold/).

Zack checked into the hospital at 7 a.m. on Dec. 30 and was taken to the operating room 13 hours later. His new heart arrived at 12:30 a.m. on Dec. 31. And at 12:31 a.m., just one day before the New Year, Zack officially was a heart transplant recipient.

“It’s the best gift in the world,” Amanda says. “We’re completely humbled that someone would share that with us. Someone had to go through a great loss for us to have ours and we don’t want to minimize that. We’re just so thankful.”

Amanda says doctors wanted the ischemic time — the time between the heart beating in the donor’s chest to the moment it began to beat in Zack’s chest — to be between four and six hours. Anything more than six hours is less than ideal.

For Zack’s surgery, the ischemic time was 3 hours, 52 minutes, something that brought both joy and relief to Amanda and Troy.

“That’s just phenomenal,” Amanda says.

According to Amanda, Zack has progressed nicely in the days following surgery. Still, the journey to recovery will be long. Zack remains in the ICU currently, but the family is hopeful he’ll move to the floor within the next few days. If all goes well, Zack will remain in Kansas City for the next four to six weeks, and Amanda says the family is hopeful Zack will be able to return to school following spring break in March.

“He will be out of school for about three months, and he’ll be on anti-rejection (medication) for the rest of his life, but he’s doing really well,” she says. “The (medical) team is happy with his progress and his heart looks really good on echo (echocardiogram). I don’t know if he can truly comprehend or process it yet, but he’s definitely excited and he told me yesterday that he can run faster than me now.”

Amanda says the last week has been difficult on Zander, who misses his best friend terribly. But he knows his older brother is on the mend.

“He’s so happy for Zack, but he misses him too,” Amanda says of her youngest son. “He’s staying with my parents (locally in the Kansas City area), but he’s come up every day except for one to see Zack.”

Above all else, the Langford family is thankful — for the donor, for the outpouring of love it’s received from friends and family, and from its Gilbert family, most notably Zack’s group of friends that FaceTimed him just prior to his surgery.

“Gilbert has reached out to us so much and the school has been amazing,” Amanda says. “His five friends FaceTimed him good luck and told him how brave he was, and that really encouraged him too. It’s a nice testament to Gilbert.”

Gilbert Schools wants to continue to support Zack and the entire Langford family throughout the coming months. On Friday, all students are asked to wear red in support of Zack, and we continue to share how you can help the family with its medical costs.

“I hope the family can feel our giant hug from Gilbert all the way to Kansas City,” Gilbert Superintendent Dr. Christine Trujillo says. “Zack and his family are very special and have been through so much, and our hearts are with them. We are all reading the daily updates on Zack’s progress (via the group Facebook page COTA for Heart Warrior ZACK), and I know the Gilbert community is joining me in praying for continued healing for Zack and peace for Zander, Amanda, Troy, and the doctors who continue to treat Zack.”

The Langford family began working with the Children’s Organ Transplant Association (COTA) this fall in an effort to fundraise to help cover Zack’s medical expenses. As of Wednesday afternoon, the family has raised $14,381 with a goal of raising $75,000.

COTA is the nation’s only fundraising organization solely dedicated to raising life-saving dollars to support transplant-ready children and young adults. Every penny in donation made to COTA in honor of a patient goes to pay transplant-related expenses.

To support Zack and the Langford family with a tax-deductible donation, you can visit his COTA website: COTAforHeartWarriorZack.com. Simply click on the GIVE tab, enter your gift amount, and then scroll down and click on Zackary Langford.

Thank You Families, Students, and Mrs. Woodin!

Sam McDaniel-Rold knows how lucky she is, even as she sits slumped in a chair inside the Gilbert High School conference room Tuesday morning. The senior basketball player is only three days removed from suffering an injury during a game at Mason City on Saturday and yet she’s smiling.

Teammate and classmate Carolyn Koenig has a grin on her face too as she sits to the left of Sam. Both girls enjoy the holiday season, but it’s as much about giving back as it is receiving. Maybe even more.

’Tis the season here at Gilbert.

Sam and Carolyn are part of a girls’ basketball senior class — alongside Ava Henningsen, Julianne Lundvall, Grace Barragy, Abigail Dies, Raney Kruse, Sydney Lynch, Johnna Rotto, Ava Johnson, and Addie Pink — that is leading the team’s mission to give back to families in need this holiday season.

“We’re all very fortunate and we know that,” Sam said. “We want to do something for those that are not as fortunate, especially during this time. It’s good for us to help out our community and do our part.”

Carolyn echoes those sentiments.

“I think it’s really important because it gives us a really good way to engage with our community,” she said. “It’s a good team-builder too. I don’t know the freshmen very well because they practice at a different time than we do, so it’s good to get to know them while also doing a good thing to benefit the community.”

In conjunction with Gilbert CSD’s Holiday Giving Program, which is shepherded by Student and Family Advocate Mel Woodin, the girls’ basketball team put together 33 snack bags for 31 families in need across the district. The team raised part of the funds for the project from the Achieve Challenge Scrimmage against Cedar Rapids Kennedy late last month, and the rest comes from donations by the players and their families.

The 34 players and managers on the roster split into 11 groups and went shopping Tuesday evening. They loaded up on all of their favorite snacks — both nutritious and not so much — to give to the families for over the Christmas break. Goldfish crackers, popcorn and chocolates were among the things Sam and Carolyn were sure to fill their bags with when they discussed the shopping excursion.

And who doesn’t like to shop? But, truthfully, the excitement from both girls came from the idea that they get to help. It’s what had the entire team excited about the adventure.

“It’s really empowering to go out with your teammates and to know you are helping to make a family’s Christmas season better,” Sam said. “It helps you reflect on your own life and what you have, and it brings us all together as a team.”

The Holiday Giving Program is more than a decade old at Gilbert, and it never fails to bring tears to the eyes of Woodin, who works tirelessly to make sure families in need have a memorable Christmas. This year there are 83 children from the 31 families who will benefit from the program.

“It helps to take the weight off of those parents and that’s everything,” Woodin said. “And they are so grateful. The families are grateful and the people who are donating are so grateful too that they can give back.

“I’ve been crying all day. I’m a hot mess, but that’s just me. I just feel so grateful for so many reasons. One, that we live in a community that is so giving and so caring. But, also, how cool is it that this is my job to be able to organize this? That’s awesome.”

The program began many years ago with the Boy Scouts, an organization that continues to take part to this day by sponsoring multiple families.

In October, Woodin sent out an email district wide to families asking if they would like to help with the program this year. Families had the option to sponsor an entire family or an individual child, or they could give gift-wrapping supplies or gift cards. And it’s all anonymous. The helping families don’t know who they’re sponsoring, and the families in need don’t know the identity of those helping.

Woodin says they ask the families that need support four things with regards to their children — what is a need, what is a want, what is their favorite color, and what is their favorite candy? From there, the helping families take over.

A conservative estimate puts the value of all of the goods purchased at $15,000, and that includes more than 80 gift cards from places like Fareway, Walmart and Target, among others. In addition to the toys, games, clothes and other items, each family will also receive a gift card.

Woodin is in charge of organizing the deliveries. She will also be present when each family picks up the items to take home and wrap for their children. It’s not easy work, but there’s nothing that’s more fulfilling.

“It’s just so great,” she said.

Gilbert Superintendent Dr. Christine Trujillo has watched as items were delivered to the school on a daily basis over the past few weeks, and she marvels at the generosity and sense of community that wafts over the schools’ hallways.

“The Gilbert School District is such an incredible place where we all take care of each other,” Dr. Trujillo said. “One of the gifts I see over and over is how this community supports our school district. It’s wonderful to see how our community gives back to our families, but also how our families help contribute to the work that we do here.”

If you are a family that may need extra support in the future, or if you are a family that would like to help support others in the future, Woodin says you can reach out to her at any time. You can contact her at woodinm@gilbertcsd.org.

Thank you, Gilbert community. You continue to lift our students, staff and families up each and every day with your support and generosity. Happy Holidays to all of you!

 

There’s a story out there that says the first sugar cookie was made in the Middle East … 1,300 years ago! As for when the delicious treat reached our borders in North America, that dates back three centuries to the Pennsylvania area.

And today it’s how Gilbert High School sophomore Abigail Randall is making a little bit of spending money as she heads into the holiday season.

Sounds fun and pretty easy, right? It is fun, Abigail says, but her finished products are anything but easy. In actuality, they’re really works of art, and art takes time.

As someone who enjoys art and has a knack for detail, decorating sugar cookies comes naturally to Abigail. And as it turns out, there’s a nice-sized market for impeccably frosted sugar cookies during the holidays.

“I’ve seen cute cookies on my Pinterest feed and I thought, I could do that,” Abigail says. “I’m not in any art classes right now, but this kind of thing has always come naturally to me. Paying attention to detail is part of my personality.”

Knowing her daughter needed some money to help pay for her car, LeeAnn Randall came up with the idea of selling sugar cookies to those with a sweet tooth. With a clever post on Facebook, a small business was in place and the orders began to flood in.

“I’ve always liked (making) sugar cookies and frosting them with my family, and some friends of my mom had some and said, ‘Oh my gosh, these are so amazing!’ Really? Are you sure they are? That’s what I said, but my mom said this would be a great way to earn money. So that’s where we’re at.”

A few cookies here and there has quickly turned into a little more work than Abigail originally envisioned. Early in the venture, she says it took upwards of 10 minutes to frost each cookie, but as the orders have increased — when she sat down to talk, she had the stress of getting 60 cookies ready for a client in a few days — so has her productivity. She’s since switched to an assembly line type system that takes less time. Now she can handle 20 cookies in two hours.

“I’m getting a lot of requests, which is very unexpected,” Abigail says. “I told my mom she has to say no to some of this because I don’t have enough time. But I’m grateful for my family, specifically my mom for helping me so much.”

And if you think Abigail is handing off her frosting duties to family members to save time, well, think again. Her cookies are unique to her artistic abilities.

“I can’t give away cookies that I’m not proud of,” she says with a chuckle.

So what is it about Abigail’s cookies that makes them so popular? Well, just look at them! Her Christmas tree design is flawless, and she can make a cookie look better than even a professional’s perfectly-wrapped present. Her talent is obvious through the various designs.

Taking a hobby and making it lucrative shows ingenuity, but that’s what it is — a hobby.

“It’s a nice way to earn some money and you can get a lot of money off sugar cookies apparently,” Abigail says.

Abigail sells her cookies through her mom’s Facebook page. The cost is six cookies for $15, or $25 for a dozen cookies. So if you’re looking for something to brighten up your holiday display …