Meet the Sun City Poms, the Arizona Cheerleading Squad Whose Oldest Member Is 83

Via Huffington Post, and courtesy of the photographer Todd Antony, here’s Lois, a member of the Sun City Poms, a cheer squad founded in 1979 that only accepts members who are 55 or older; their oldest member is 83. With a hundred residents over 100 and 2,350 residents over 85, Sun City, AZ is full of active senior citizens, but these ladies are especially so: they perform around 50 shows a year, and their repertoire includes baton twirling, acrobatics, and pyramids.

For more photos of the squad, check out Todd Antony’s full spread, or his blog post on the experience photographing these women: “While I was there,” he wrote, “I couldn’t help but think that with the American obsession for child beauty pageants, you have one age group of society trying to grow up way too fast, while at the other end of the age scale another group strives to hold back the years in some way. And does a pretty damn good job of it really.”

Photo courtesy Todd Antony.