The ISU Dance Team spent the evening of Jan. 23 creating blankets and will be giving more back to the community, in honor of two fellow dancers who lost their respective battles to cancer.

All 38 members of both the Cardinal and Gold squads met in Forker Hall to create over 40 tie blankets in honor of Dyamond Ott, a 2011 graduate of Ankeny High School. Ott, who took dance lessons at Nicole’s School of Dance, was diagnosed with a brain tumor at age 17. Through surgery and six weeks of radiation treatments, she was cured of the tumor and walked on her graduation day. However, she was then later diagnosed with a cancer called PTLD. She died on Dec. 11, 2011.

“I danced with Dyamond for many years,” Kate Britten said, a second-year member on the Gold Squad.

Britten, along with her teammates, wished to give back to cancer patients by creating these blankets and donating them through the Ott family.

“I know it means a lot to Dyamond’s family,” Britten, who is also a junior in elementary education, said. “It also hits close to home because I knew her so well.”

The blankets will be sent to hospitals in Des Moines, Iowa City, Nebraska and the Ronald McDonald Houses in those areas, as well.

Kelsey Michelsen, a Southeast Polk High School student, died from a brain tumor on Dec. 10, 2012, 10 months after she and her family thought they had beaten it.

Marie Simon, a first-year member of the Cardinal Squad, was a teammate and close friend of Michelsen. In addition to participating in Dance Marathon in Michelsen’s honor, Simon, who is also a sophomore in elementary education, wanted to do a community project. Simon’s idea, to create Build-A-Bear stuffed animals for local children cancer patients, struck a chord with her teammates and coaches.

“When I presented the idea to my coaches, they were excited,” Simon said. “We were a bit emotional about it, but our team loved the idea.”

The team will dress the bears in dance team shirts and insert a heart into each bear, which Simon said is a wish or prayer for the children.

“Kelsey brought a bit of life into everyone she met,” Simon said. “I wanted to have the team do the same for these patients.”

Simon’s idea led to not only the team making the bears but also brought about the idea of making the blankets through the drive run by the Ott family and Nicole’s School of Dance. 

“I think that we’re always wanting to be really involved in the community,” said Kizzie Ryerson, senior captain of the Gold Squad and senior in elementary education. “Last Christmas, we did Adopt-A-Family, where we all went Christmas shopping at Walmart, and we [raised] so much money to buy presents for kids around the community, and we took them to the Youth and Shelter Services.”

In addition to performing at school athletic events, the dance team also reaches out to community through appearances at the Special Olympics and the Youth and Shelter Services.

“Usually, if we do any community service work, it’s around the winter time,” said Kristin Berte, the captain for Cardinal Squad and senior in finance. “It is good for those families and a reminder that there are others there for them. It’s a great time for us to get together and do something good for not only us, but [it] touches a lot of people.”

The team is planning to also make personal appearances at the Blank Children’s Hospital to hand out the Build-A-Bear stuffed animals to children patients.

“We were thinking that we’d prefer to do it around Valentine’s Day,” Ryerson said. “We wanted to make it more like love from the Iowa State Dance Team.”

For Courtney McCulloh, a captain for the Gold Squad, making these blankets and giving back is not only rewarding, but also is way of saying thank you to the community.

“We just had a great time,” McCulloh, a junior in event management, said. “It’s always nice to help out the community and do as much as we can. They give to us and it’s nice to give back as much as we can.”

Other future plans for the team include preparing for Nationals this year in April, and giving even more back. The team will be giving out valentines to the residents of Green Hills Retirement Community on Valentine’s Day. 

“This year, we are definitely doing a lot more to give back,” Berte said. “I hope we continue on that path in the future.”