Muddy Cheer Challenge

As a former gym owner/coach, and now a cheer mom, three things I always struggled with was coming with fresh, new ideas for fundraising, team bonding, and giving back to the community. Let's face it, the same old car washes and bake sales year after year get monotonous and barely make a dent in expenses, you can only do so many trust falls, and trying to coordinate everyone's schedule to do volunteer work is near impossible. Dynamic Mother-Daughter Duo Debbie and Morgan Fairley have made it possible to accomplish all three of these things in one fun filled event- Muddy Cheer Challenge. Not only does this event help your team and your community, but it also promotes physical fitness and fun in a unique way that allows everyone to participate and be successful. I was very excited to speak with Morgan Fairley, founder of MCC, about this amazing opportunity that can greatly benefit the cheer industry and communities as a whole.

Tell us about yourself and what inspired you to start Muddy Cheer Challenge. 

I'm a former all-star cheerleader and coach, an avid runner, and of course an animal lover! My love for running and cheerleading is what ultimately inspired me to open up this family business. For a long time I wanted to open my own cheerleading gym, but decided maybe there was something more new and innovating I could come up with for this industry. My mother and I sat down and had a talk, as we do often, and starting throwing out ideas for a business, and this is how Muddy Cheer Challenge came about. We wanted to create a business where we could have fun, give back, make people smile, and most importantly promote family and team bonding.

MCC is a mud run fundraising/event planning company that allows all-star cheerleaders/high school cheerleaders/rec cheerleaders, and any other group (i.e. animal shelters, football teams, non-profits) to fundraise money. It's very simple. Any group looking to fundraise money becomes a "host group" for a run, and the amount they raise is determined by how many runners they can register for the run under THEIR group’s name. Being a former cheerleader, I knew that selling cookie dough, having movie nights, and hosting car washes was "getting old" and that the cheer industry needed a new, no-money down, hassle free, more fun way of fundraising, and this is exactly what MCC allows you to do.

We also wanted to tie our family beliefs and giving back into the company, which is why we will have a beneficiary for each run where we give a percentage of OUR profits to a local charity. By doing this we hope to inspire and encourage others to make small gestures of kindness each day. MCC is also a powerful tool for team bonding, tackle the course as a team together and I'm POSITIVE you will come out together with a stronger bond. Our course isn't timed, it's not a race. That’s why we make sure to emphasize that it's a run and that ANYBODY can complete the course; we're all about having fun. We also have a course for special needs athletes, which run for free, OR if they'd like they can run the full course for free as well!

How does your love for animals fit into the challenge?

Of course my family and I couldn't open up a business unless it benefitted animals in some way. Since our lives revolve around making our four dogs happy, we wanted to make sure other animals were receiving some of the love too. Instead of charging a spectator fee at our events, we ask that everyone bring a can or bag of dog/cat food or a small donation that will go toward the event’s local animal shelter. We will also be holding an original MCC game at each of our events (designed by Diesel, one of our four dogs) that will help benefit the local shelter as well. It's called "The Muddy Paw Pit". How it works is volunteers will walk around the event asking spectators and runners to enter into a 50/50 raffle. Mid-way through the event we will call everyone that entered into the raffle to "The Muddy Paw Pit." This is where they will have a chance to redeem half of the pot of money (the other half goes to the animal shelter). Participants will have the opportunity to redeem the cash prize in a huge mud pit that they will have to search through and try to find "doggy bags" filled with cash.

Where can gyms find out information to participate in a run, or request a run in their area?

Almost any question you have about our events can be found on our website: muddycheerchallenge.com

If you have any additional questions we are also available by email at: muddycheerchallenge@aol.com. It is VERY important for everyone to request a run if we don't already have one in their area. We are about to start working on our 2015 schedule and are planning on nearly doubling our locations, and these locations will be based off of the request that we get from our "request a run map" on our website.

For groups who need something close to home, we are also offering the Virtual Cheer Challenge which can be held at a location of the organization’s choosing. Information for VCC can also be found on our website.

What type of sponsorship opportunities do you have available for businesses who wish to support MCC?

Sponsorship opportunities are always negotiable, anyone interested in sponsoring us can email us at: muddycheerchallenge@aol.com.

For more information on how to get your team ready to participate, check out all the details on the Muddy Cheer Challenge at:

www.muddycheerchallenge.com
www.facebook.com/MuddyCheerChallenge