It's CheerMAD's Anniversary and YOU Get the Gifts!

It's CheerMAD's 4 year anniversary and, as always, YOU get the gifts!

CheerMAD is beyond happy to announce that its 4 Year Anniversary is sponsored by All Star Outfitters: the number one apparel vendor at All Star events.

ASO designed and is donating the "Certifiably CheerMAD Stamp of Approval" t-shirt (seen left) which can't be bought anywhere else, and only available here as a gift to cheer parents.

"We wanted to show how much we appreciate all the cheer moms and dads who buy from our booths all season by giving them something back in return," said JG Ketchen, vice president, All Star Outfitters. "And we want to wish CheerMAD a Happy 4 Year Anniversary."

Other gifts include a mini MaeFlyers (pictured below) and 8 StuntStraps from CoreAthletics, and an Nfinity Backpack full of gear (See instructions below to win).

So how'd we get here?

Four years has flown by and my life is very different on many levels now compared to those nights I would stay up until 3 a.m. blogging. I loved it and kept that schedule, posting three to four times a week during the summer of 2011. When I found out the name cheermom.com was already taken, I had the wonderful challenge and opportunity to create a new name , one that could incorporate dads as well as moms, and one that even Walt Disneytalked to me about "sharing" when I was tapped for its social media moms panel.

CheerMAD is a mixed word and acronym: "Cheer" is obvious. "M" stands for "Moms" "A" stands for "AND" "D" stands for "Dads." Using the meaning from MAD, as in crazy, I adopted the "tag" "Certifiably CheerMAD" for the blog. I didn't know I was establishing a brand...but more of that in future blogs.

When CheerMAD launched, I felt a very real debt to All Stars for what it had provided for my oldest daughter Becky (now 22). As a professional journalist, writing was my way to try to give back a little. I wanted to support those who support this sport. Who, as I wrote back then:

"Hold their flyers up high; back up their backs, and provide a strong foundation for their bases."

I also never wanted to charge readers for anything because, as a veteran cheer mom myself, I knew the expenses that come with All Stars.

So it began. CheerMAD's first post received 124 readers. I was elated. It was a great start towards my goal of having 10,000 readers in the first year. We gained momentum and hit 10,000 readers in the first six weeks. Today, between this website, Facebook and Twitter, we've had more than 300,000 readers for just one post and can track more than regular 600,000 CheerMAD followers...

Since there are many who missed that very first "Certifiably CheerMAD" post four years ago, here it is:

I’m a proud Cheer Mom of Becky, an 18-year old International 5 All Star, and for ten years have watched the sport and my daughter grow Pictured left with Becky in 2003 at our first "travel" comp at Hershey Park when she competed with 5 Star Academy in Massachusetts.

I’ve seen first hand how dedication, discipline and determination can help a little girl blossom into an amazing young woman. And I’ve been amazed as competitions moved out of high school gyms and into regional arenas.

Last year, I became a Cheer Mom x2 when my other daughter Rachel, 9, (now 13) started cheering again. She had been on a tiny tots team when she was three and had a false start in All Stars when she was seven (which was fine with me as I added up all the costs and multiplied them by two). But last year, I couldn’t keep her out of the gym.

Almost ten years apart in age, Becky and Rachel had little in common. Now they speak the same language. Cheerleading is the great equalizer in our family, which also includes my *husband Jim (who is not now, never was, nor never will be a CHEERMaD) and son John, 14, (now 18). For many years, John tagged along to comps but as he got older joined his father in attending one mandatory competition a year (the one held closest to our home).

Proathletics' Fierce Kid Rachel and Headliner Becky

In February my daughters shared the very special experience of receiving their CH