Fundraising Method May Be Kicked to the Curb

A team of youth cheerleaders will continue to ask for donations around town to help defray the cost of traveling to a national championship, but not without first going over some guidelines with police.

Selectmen were concerned Monday when they entertained a request from Milford Youth Football and Cheerleading for a "permit to obstruct,"—days after the group had already been out "canning," in some of the town's busiest intersections.

The cheerleaders, part of the U15 Lady Hawks team, began fundraising last week, shortly after qualifying for a national competition, which is being held Dec. 11 in Florida.

According to selectmen Chairman William Buckley, some of the locations proposed for collecting donations "appeared to be inherently unsafe," to the board when the permit application came up for review. 

That, and the fact that five dates on the application predated selectmen's review of the document on Nov. 29, led to approval contingent upon further discussion about safety.

Nicole Cheschi, cheer coordinator for Milford Youth Football and Cheerleading, said selectmen received the permit in two parts because the group was late filing their application.

"We realize now that in future years, we will apply for the permit earlier in the season so it's set to go when and if we need to raise funds for Nationals," she said. "There is a very short window of time between qualifying for the national event and having to leave, so the girls have been working hard to raise all the money."

Cheschi said Thursday the group had planned to meet with Police Chief Thomas O'Loughlin before resuming outdoor fundraising today, Saturday and Sunday.

The permit had listed Congress Street (in front of the Post Office), Main Street, the island in front of and the island in front of on Route 140, as locations the group hoped to solicit from between 8 a.m. and 2 p.m.

Last week, Cheschi said, a group of girls voluntarily moved from the intersection of Routes 109 and 16, at the request of a police officer. That occurred after a man from a local business called police and expressed concern for the girls' safety while collecting donations.

"We're going to focus on canning outside stores," she said, adding that the team also has a cash-calendar raffle under way. "Their goal is to raise a large sum of money in a short period of time and we don't want to cause any unnecessary safety issues." 

O'Loughlin said he would likely allow canning in a limited number of intersections. 

"If they plan on collecting donations from motorists in traffic, I would suggest that there be adults with children and that the solicitations only take place at the intersection of Route 16 and Route 109 and/or Congress Street and Main Street near the post office," he said. "I have limited the activity to these locations because our experience has shown that it can be far more dangerous at intersections that have multiple turns.

"There are no issues with the cheerleaders or parents collecting donations in front of businesses," he said, adding that permission from the business owners is needed only if the activity takes place on private property. 

"The primary motivation for the board was to make sure that whatever they were doing was safe," Buckley said. "There are places where you can safely block the sidewalk, but being in the street is another question. We referred it so the chief would have an opportunity to sit down with the group and figure out where the best locations were, and if the streets they were proposing made sense."

Permits to obstruct traffic are typically given for events such as road races, Buckley noted. "Police are the experts as far as knowing what intersections and what times of day make sense for that activity," he said.

"This is as worthy a cause as you can find, but at the same time, we don't want a positive thing marred by an accident." 

The U15 team is coached by Annie Chiarelli and assistants Melissa Juliano and Lisa Caso. Cheschi said cheerleaders from the town will be visible in town this weekend canning and selling the $10 raffle tickets. She also noted the group will participate in the on Sunday.