CORRECTION

A caption with a photograph of a Wilders Grove Wolfpack cheerleader on Page 10A Thursday was incorrect. The cheerleader was Taylor Wilson.

******

What would you do if you found out your little dancer, cheerleader or linebacker had a week to get ready for a national championship competition at Walt Disney World? Ask for time off work? Find a sitter for the baby? Scrounge money for the trip? Consult school teachers? Celebrate? Panic?

Parents of about 250 local Pop Warner kids are doing all of that.

Two Triangle football teams, four dance teams and 10 cheerleading squads are among more than 400 teams going to Orlando, Fla., next week to compete for Pop Warner championships.

Pop Warner is a nonprofit national youth sports organization that emphasizes teamwork, achievement and good grades.

Team members found out they were going to Disney last weekend, when they won regional competitions in Huntsville, Ala. "I screamed," said Niamesha Jones-Roberts, 15, of Clayton, a member of Johnston County's Cleveland Wildcats dance team. "I never did anything so big before. I'm going to be on TV. And we can show what our team can do."

Her mom, Angelina Keys, 34, is already doing backflips to get ready for the trip -- including coming up with several hundred non-holiday dollars in just a few days to pay the way.

"We're trying everything we can to raise money," said Keys, a medical assistant at a Raleigh doctor's office. "I've asked relatives. I've asked my bosses. They gave up money. All the parents are doing their darnedest to get their kids there."

Pop Warner's affiliates are private, volunteer organizations that don't have much money. There's a scramble every year the week after Thanksgiving as regional winners aim for the top.

"We're biting nails, still looking for money," said Joyce Owens, cheer director of the Durham-based Tri-County Panthers, which will send a dance team to Orlando. The group is soliciting donations through letters, e-mails, its Web site and word of mouth. "This week we've been on the pavement," Owens said. "It's rough."

The Triangle teams are all seeking tax-deductible donations to pay for lodging, food and travel.

They've already hawked doughnuts, fried fish, baked goods and calendars. Now they're hitting up sponsors, local businesses, even aunts and uncles.

Allie Minori, 11, a Raleigh sixth-grader and a member of the Capital City Steelers' peewee cheer team, said she has raised about $500 that way. To make her case, she wrote an essay on why the trip is important.

"I'm going to continue raising money to help send other people," Minori said. "I'm, like, really excited, 'cause we get to go to Disney World and hang out and, like, compete there, and then, like, hang out some more."

The children's school absences for the championships are typically approved. They get assignments ahead of time and have study halls in Orlando.

"It's a good experience for the boys, so it's worth the sacrifice," said Lakesia Dickens, whose son Marques Townsend, 13, is quarterback on the Steelers' midget football team. She traveled with the team to Huntsville last week. She and her husband are going to Orlando, too.

"It's a fast turn-around," said Dickens, a manager at Lenovo International in Research Triangle Park. "Some parents can't make it."

Scott Garner, president of East Raleigh's Wilders Grove Youth Center, is proud to be sending two cheer teams and a dance squad, about 40 girls in all, which will cost about $20,000.

"It's very hectic," Garner said. "We do the best we can in a small time frame, and then the parents have to open their pockets. The financial burden can be quite a strain, especially with the holidays coming. Finding out how much it costs sometimes comes is quite a shock to the parents."

Even Keys, a single mom who played Pop Warner sports as a girl, would say so.

"It's overwhelming, but we want the girls to go," she said. "This is a milestone that they have reached the national level.

"I'm excited, too. I've never been to Disney World."

Some dreams do come true.

Get $150+ in coupons in every Sunday N&O. Click here for convenient home delivery.