Anya Tikka | Democrat Cheerleaders Ashley Gulla, Braelyn Kolvenbach, and Alyssa Donnelly said the cheerleaders especially wanted to remember their schoolmate, Amanda Morabito, who died earlier this because as a result of a car accident, because her aunt Patty Norris is their coach.

ECS remembers classmate, friend

Story by Anya Tikka
ELDRED — October 11, 2013 — Eldred High School remembered Amanda Morabito who died in a car accident earlier in the year by having a ‘pink-out’ at the season-opening football game against Liberty on September 6.
The entire school was encouraged to wear pink for the day, and at the start of the game, pink balloons were distributed and then released in the air by the cheerleaders, football players and the spectators.
The cheerleaders also wore pink shirts and bows in Amanda’s honor. Although Amanda played soccer, her aunt Patty Norris is the school’s cheerleading coach and she led the effort to remember her niece at the football game.
Cheerleaders had worked to gather the pink balloons they distributed to the crowd. They also wore pink shirts over their regular cheerleading uniforms and had bright pink bows in their hair.
Cheerleaders Braelyn Kolvenbach, Alyssa Donnelly, and Kayla Carcone talked about Amanda at the start of the game.
Alyssa recounted, “Our coach Patty Norris was her aunt, so she really wanted to do something for Amanda. She was a senior. We wanted to support our coach, so all the seniors on the cheerleading and football teams got together and wanted to do this for her.”
Amanda’s sister Ashley was with her in the car. She got injured in the accident, but is healing.
“She was my niece, so I wanted to do something special for her,” said Norris. “So we decided to do the pink-out just to show support for her and her family. Her sister Ashley will be here later, she’s well, she’s healing. We decided to do the balloon release as well.”
Cheerleader Kayla Carcone added, “We wanted it to be something important for our community, so we thought this is the best way to draw everyone here, and to wear pink to show how close-knit we are as a community.”
When asked about the significance of the color pink, Kayla replied, “Her favorite colors were yellow, purple and green, but we figured, we wanted to have something that popped and wowed. So we decided to have pink.”
Many men who were at the game also wore pink. A banner on the field exclaimed, “Tough guys wear pink.”