Car washes, part-time jobs and gift card sales are taking the Hillcrest High School Panaders to Broadway.

 

Fourteen members of the dance team are traveling to New York for five days this month to see Broadway shows, take dance lessons and experience the Big Apple’s culture.

 

“This was a dream I had to get our girls out of Texas ,” Panaders director Lori Lewis says. “I actually have girls who have never been on a plane before or out of the state.”

 

Claudia Gonzales, a 17-year-old junior, is one of those students.

 

“I’m very excited,” she says. “I think it will be a good opportunity to get to know each other and really bond as a team.”

 

Lewis, a 1994 graduate of Hillcrest and former Panaders dancer, returned to take over the team two years ago. When she started, Lewis says, the team’s only scheduled trips were an annual national contest in San Antonio .

 

As a Panader, Lewis went to the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona, . She says she wanted to revive travel opportunities for the team.

 

With the help of several parents, Lewis arranged a trip that includes seeing the Broadway shows “Mama Mia!” and “Movin’ Out,” ballet lessons at the Broadway Dance Center, a New York Knicks game (to see the Knicks City Dancers), shopping and sightseeing.

 

“It’s so important for them to experience something other than home,” Lewis says. “Just to be in that place is exciting. I think it’s so great that I get to experience that with them.”

 

Carol Brizzolara, a 17-year-old junior, visited New York last year with her mother during Spring Break. But she says she’s happy to repeat the experience with her teammates.

 

“I can’t wait,” she says. “I think it’s a good break for the team and a good reward.”

 

Helena Josic, a 17-year-old junior, says she most looks forward to experiencing the city’s culture.

 

“The musicals, once they start traveling, you can get a piece of that here,” she says. “But the buildings and the sites you can only get in New York .

 

“I think it’s a new experience, and most of the girls would not get to do it if we weren’t going as a group.”

 

The trip costs $725 per girl. Fund-raising took many forms, Lewis says. Some parents paid, the school’s alumni association donated $1,500, the team held a dance clinic for younger girls, and anonymous donors contributed funds. A Hillcrest alumnus who works with the Knicks donated the game tickets.

 

The girls also sold gift cards to area stores, earning a percentage of their sales. Hillcrest principal Johnlyn Mitchell was especially supportive, Lewis says, buying thousands in Home Depot cards for a home redecorating project.

 

“A lot of the teachers have bought from the girls,” Lewis says, “and our principal has been unbelievable.”