Cheerleaders are on a high with boost to funds for their US trip

Diamonds Cheerleaders are on a high after a huge donation from a local building company to help pay for the new kit they need.

George Russell, founder of G Russell Builders Ltd, handed over a cheque for £11,760 to Diamonds Cheerleaders to pay for the kit which the Ruby section have to have for their planned trip to the Summit in Florida next April. He has a vested interest in the cheerleading group as his granddaughter Amy is one of the joint captains of the girls who are travelling to the US.

Natalie Samuel, who runs the group with her mother Gill, handed over a wee token of appreciation to George to say thank you for his generosity along with a card signed by all of the group. She said: “Thank you all so much. This is amazing. I can’t wait for you to follow our journey, see all the kit that we are buying for the girls.”  

George said: “I just wanted to see the girls do well, especially my granddaughter Amy. It is of course the company that gave the money, not me. I lost my wife five years ago and about seven months ago I decided that enough’s enough, I had to get myself moving again. So I set up this building company and it has turned out brilliantly. It was good to hand over that money.”

The building company is based in Mayfield and can take on anything up to building a whole house. All trades are on call with a core team of around 12 members of staff running the business. 

Gill Samuel and her daughter Natalie, who run Diamonds Cheerleaders, train the teams in a variety of age-based groups mainly at Liberton High School. Following an appeal for new training facilities in the summer after the council altered their contract to use the high ceilinged space at Liberton, John Beatson of Goodtrees Neighbourhood Centre answered, offering the group a space there every week.