“About 1 in 8 U.S. women will develop invasive breast cancer over the course of her lifetime,” according to U.S. Breast Cancer Statistics. In 2015, The American Cancer Society estimates that 231,840 new cases of invasive breast cancer will be diagnosed in the United States.
October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month, which acts as an annual campaign to help fundraise, increase awareness, and support the people who have been affected by this disease.
For years, Hood College Athletics has held games to honor, raise money for, and bring awareness to, Breast Cancer. Year after year these games have shown to bring large crowds and a good amount of fundraising.
This year, field hockey and volleyball held pink games.
“Our Breast Cancer games are always the games we look forward to,” Alysa Billeter, senior captain on the Women’s Feld Hockey team, said. “These games bring the most fans and not only do the players love being a part of these games, but I truly believe these are the games the parents look forward to most.”
Volleyball “dug pink” by wearing pink shirts, pink headbands, and pink shoelaces to show support.
“All of the girls love having these games and more fans seem to come out and support the team and the cause,” Lauren Cline, Assistant Coach for the Women’s Volleyball team, said. “However, I think the meaning has been lost for many years now. Teams are more excited to wear pink than support the cause or promote awareness.”
From fundraising, selling t-shirts, having bake sales, and collecting donations at the games, theirs no denying that the Hood community isn’t hesitant when it comes to supporting a good cause.
Cline said money was raised at the door through generous donations from families, students, and staff.
“The team raised money through a pink bake sale that we held at our game,” Billeter said. “We also raised money through Play4TheCure, which we marketed through our social media pages, word of mouth, and in any other way we could.”
In the past, Hood College’s Women’s Soccer has hosted pink games in honor of Breast Cancer, but the past two years the team has chosen to host a teal game during the month of September to raise awareness for Ovarian Cancer.
“One of our teammates has an aunt who was diagnosed with Ovarian Cancer and our Head Coach, KristaLee Mellott, had a coach who passed away from the disease,” Sarah Marcello, a senior on the team, said. “Hosting a teal game had a more personal meaning to us the past few years and we were all glad to show our support.”
The players were all responsible for selling shirts to raise money and donations were collected at the game; part of these profits went to the local ovarian and cervical cancer coalition.
“Even though we didn’t have a specific pink game a lot of the team shows their support during our games in October by wearing pink headbands,” Marcello said.
Whatever the school is decked out in pink or teal, the Hood community is brought together by these different causes.
Field hockey hosts picnics (or tailgates) after home games and welcomes anyone. Billeter noted that the breast cancer games have always resulted in the bigger tailgates and “everyone has fun eating, hanging out, and spending time with friends, teammates, and family,” she said.
“It was the biggest crowd we’ve had this year,” Marcello proudly said. “Everyone was wearing their teal shirts in the crowd and cheering us on during the close game.”
Other organizations, schools, and sports teams, hold awareness games. “It isn’t hard to get the word out there, so why not help as much as possible,” Billeter said. “We’re just one team at one school, but if enough teams and schools get involved who says we can’t make an impact.”
This year, field hockey team got to participate in another institutions pink game where a player’s mother was honored. Hood got to wear their pink jerseys and show their respect and support.
Billeter and Marcello both are glad that Hood College supports the athletic teams in their efforts and hopes the awareness continues for years to come.