MEXICO — A baton twirling studio will open July 5 at the Mexico Recreation Center, and the instructor hopes to have the River Valley Twirlers hold their first public performance a month later.

“I am very excited to offer this to our own community,” said Tammy Parent of Rumford. “Baton twirling is a fun and amazing sport. I see the little girls from the twirl teams in surrounding areas having such a blast twirling and performing, and I want to be able to give that opportunity and experience to our own area children,” she said.

The sessions are for children ages 4 to 14, who will meet two evenings a week for a hour and be grouped into three teams based on age.

Parent said she decided to open a studio after the Rally in the Valley event hosted by the Mountain Valley High School Majorettes in April.

“We had many twirl groups come in for our event from surrounding areas,” said Parent, who coaches the Falcon Majorettes team. “Girls from Paris, Waterford, Poland participated, and there were several parents from our own community. They kept asking why there isn’t a team here in town for our younger girls to join.  In the River Valley area we only have the high school baton team.”

Parent’s daughter Krystal is captain of the high school team and will be an assistant coach for the River Valley Twirlers. Parent’s daughter Savannah is a member of the Paris Spinners.

The cost of the program is $35 a month. Loaner batons and all performance costumes are provided; twirlers must provide their plain white tennis sneakers. Information is available at the website www.rivervalleytwirlers.weebly.com.

Parent is hoping to have the River Valley Twirlers ready to perform in the Wilton Blueberry Festival on Aug 7.