MILLBROOK — The Millbrook varsity cheerleading squad is working hard to raise $12,000 to go to a national competition in Myrtle Beach, S.C., from March 22 to 24.The team has been raising funds around the community, including setting up a table in the Poughkeepsie Galleria mall on Wednesday, Dec. 26.“The kids raised about $747 that day. We’re still about $9,000 short. Whatever the kids don’t raise has to come out of pocket,” said Shelley Hollingsworth, coach of the varsity team.Along with Hollingsworth, assistant coaches Vicki Crane and Nicole Eads, modified coach Karen Larson and team mom Linda Meyen work with the team of 13 boys and 19 girls in grades nine through 12 to prepare for the competition.“We’re a smaller district and our team doesn’t do tryouts. Anyone who wants to join the team can. So we work really hard with each student to get them to the competition level,” said Hollingsworth.Hollingsworth got her start in the cheerleading world as a cheerleader herself when she attended the Millbrook Central School District.“I cheered through school and stopped after that. Once my daughter became interested in Pop Warner I also got more involved. I’ve been coaching for a total of 12 years now, six of those years at Millbrook,” she said.In those six years the Millbrook team has consistently attended the Spirit Sports National Competition and won first, second or third place every year.“It’s a lot of work. We’re really proud of the level these kids compete at,” she said.Along with coaching competition cheerleading, Hollingsworth also coaches the football cheerleading squad and the basketball cheerleading squad at Millbrook.“It’s really our life. We’d all do anything for these kids. It’s amazing to watch them succeed,” she said.Because cheerleading is considered a club and not a sport at Millbrook, the district cannot financially support the trip.“They really are so wonderful in every other way though. The administration, each member, really takes a huge interest in what the kids do. They’re there for us 100 percent of the time and it’s great for us. The community also supports us a lot. Millbrook, as a community, is absolutely wonderful,” she said.The team plans to host several upcoming fundraisers, including coin drops in the village.“The $12,000 covers the bus, hotel and competition fees. We’re really grateful for all the support we’ve already gotten and are hoping to get as close to the goal as possible,” said Hollingworth.Anyone interested in donating through March 1 can contact Hollingsworth directly by calling 914-475-7648.
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Greg Fricke and James Boehmer, co-owners of Peggy Mercury in Kent, recently launched their first fashion line, “Imaginary Concerts.”
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Fricke and Boehmer are not there to stock their shelves with the same products customers find at standard makeup retailers. They’re there to help customers find what works for them. That usually means asking customers about themselves and learning about their beauty habits, skin, style and the way they like to present themselves. Fricke and Boehmer believe it’s their job to help customers bring out the qualities that suit them and determine what works best for their look.
So much of the Peggy Mercury world is about emboldening people to become more creative, and possibly bolder, versions of themselves. Some of this comes through the store’s creative collaborations with artists, designers and stylists.
It’s part of an ethos that encourages them and their friends to use the shop as a kind of laboratory, trying out new creative experiments without knowing how they might turn out. Whether in fashion, painting, fiber arts or photography, the projects almost always turn out marvelously.
A line of sterling silver charms they sell started as a small project by their friend Nolan Percival. In the beginning, the pieces were for close friends and loved ones. But Boehmer and Fricke encouraged Percival to get a little more serious about the project and create a whole line for the store. Today, it’s one of their top-selling collections.
Classic styles, bold colors, and creative concerts make up the “Imaginary Concerts” line at Peggy Mercury.Provided
“Imaginary Concerts” has the duo taking their own advice.
The project started as a way for Boehmer to connect with his mother, who had been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. Taking old concert shirts from his own collection, Boehmer and his mother began cutting out the graphics with the idea that they would make a quilt together. Unfortunately, she died before they could complete the project in 2025. The pieces, which were ready for production, were put on the back burner as Boehmer and Fricke dealt with their loss and the whirlwind of projects that never seemed to cease at Peggy Mercury.
But the harsh winter of 2026 presented an opportunity to take some time and focus on themselves. Part of that meant revisiting and redefining the concert T-shirt project. This time, instead of looking to the warmth and comfort of a quilt, they turned to another passion — fashion.
Taking a page from their own book, they wanted to create something that felt comfortable to them. They took two disparate loves — one rooted in simple preppy style, with clean lines and classic silhouettes, and the other in the nitty gritty worlds of punk rock and pop — and blended them together to create something entirely new. Pulling from the staples of vintage Brooks Brothers and Charvet collections, they applied the graphic elements with bold stitching reminiscent of punk jackets of the ‘70s and ‘80s, but with a much more sophisticated air.
But the remixing isn’t just the pairing of prep and punk. The pieces are not canon. They take liberties with the realities of concert tours, combining one band’s dates with another band’s logos, mixing them all up until the reality is lost and imagination is the only truth.
Shirts from Peggy Mercury’s first fashion line, “Imaginary Concerts,” hang on display.Provided
Adding to the mix is an element of perpetual creativity. Art can be messy, both figuratively and literally, and many of Fricke and Boehmer’s artist friends carry evidence of their work on them at all times. As a nod to these tireless creatives, the duo added haphazard splashes of bright color, giving the line an even more distinctive feel.
For them, “Imaginary Concerts” passes the “Peggy Test.” The mythical Peggy Mercury is a fictional figurehead for the company, a character who thrives on creativity and change. The name, much like the clothing line, is a mixture of interests: Mercury is a planet, a deity and an elusive, transformative element, while Peggy is the wonderfully stylish and boundary-pushing Peggy Guggenheim.
Everything Fricke and Boehmer put in their store has to pass this test: Would Peggy Mercury approve? For their first collection, the answer is a resounding yes.
Peggy Mercury is at 9 Maple St., Unit 2, Kent.
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