UNI baton twirler goes international
UNI baton twirler goes international
On Sept. 29, Panther Marching Band and its colorguard dazzled football game goers, but something — someone — was absent. But Evelyn Green had a good excuse for missing her baton twirling duties. She was in an entirely different continent, twirling her baton for tens of thousands in Peru as a United States Twirling Ambassador.
“It's nice to be able to be an ambassador for UNI and the United States and really show people what the twirling position truly is all about and what baton twirling is,” said Green, a first-year early childhood education major. “It’s a chance to really show my passion.”
Green was one of 12 baton twirlers from across the country selected to represent the United States in Peru as twirling ambassadors. Most of the ambassadors were high school seniors or college students. Only one other student attends college in Iowa, and others came from everywhere from Utah to Mississippi.
“If you're chosen, it's a very prestigious line of twirlers, and I was nervous to see how I would fit in, but luckily all of them were very nice,” said Green.
During the week in Peru, Green and the other ambassadors met with government officials around the city of Trujillo, donated items to community members in need and performed numerous times around the city. Although the ambassadors twirled for a variety of smaller events, the pinnacle of their hard work was performing at the 71st annual Peru International Spring Festival for the Lions Club, an event that drew 80,000 spectators.
For Green, performing on an international stage is nothing new. As a seventh grader from Oshkosh, Wisconsin, her baton team competed in Norway for the World Championships. Right before coming to UNI, she went to the World Championships again, this time in England, and walked away with gold and silver medals. It was at the World Championships in August that Green found out she had been selected as a twirling ambassador after her long-time coach recommended her for the position.
“When I found out, I was very excited because I love working in the community and being with people, and I love to travel,” she said. “So being able to have a mixture of all my passions combined into one week was definitely very exciting.”
Green has been twirling since she was eight years old. She started out in gymnastics at the age of three, but at age eight, she made the switch to dance. The dance studio specialized in baton twirling. Green took a class, fell in love with the art and started competing.
“I love to perform,” said Green. “It's just really fun for me, and I think of it as showing my passion and showing people what I can do, and I don't think about it as competing or being scary. Yes, I still get nervous to compete or perform, but I just think about it as having fun now.”
Growing up, she easily spent 20 hours each week twirling. But Green wouldn’t trade all those hours for anything. She also learned an important lesson by making a habit of practicing so much.
“With baton twirling, you learn to have a lot of determination,” she said. “You're not going to get the trick right away. So you really have to just stay focused and stay with it.”
As a senior in high school, Green twirled her way to being Miss Wisconsin’s Teen 2022. It was during that time that Green discovered UNI’s Panther Marching Band would be in need of a new feature twirler come 2023. It was a major factor behind her wanting to come to UNI. She wowed the judges with her audition in February.
Green will remain the feature twirler throughout her time at UNI. She said she appreciates how welcoming the Panther Marching Band has been to her.
“It was really nice to be able to walk into this position and just have everyone be so accepting of me,” she said. “From the beginning, it felt like I had been there for a long time.”
