In 2024, 360,000 women will be diagnosed with breast cancer. While there are many ways to do early detection, whether that’s self examination, scheduling regular breast exams, or mammograms, breast cancer is still one of the most common cancers diagnosed among women in the U.S.
There are many ways to support finding a cure, including marching, donating, and raising money. In the St. Stephen’s and St. Agnes community, many sports teams have come together to set up fundraisers for breast cancer research and organizations.
Athletic Director, Coach Koroma, stated “Starting last year, we tried to kind of formalize a week in the fall where all of the different teams would wear shirts or ribbons or things like that, just to bring awareness for breast cancer and breast cancer research. And then a couple teams in particular, dove into the more advocacy, fundraising part.”
In past years the two primary sales were those by field hockey and volleyball. In 2023, the girls’ varsity and junior varsity field hockey teams raised $1,003 for Play4TheCure, which is a sports fundraising program of the National Foundation for Cancer that helps raise money for cancer research, treatments, and cures. The goal of Play4TheCure is to take the love of playing sports and use that to help loved ones affected by cancer. With the help of parent and sibling volunteers, the field hockey bakesale this year was a huge success, raising $579 for Play4TheCure.
Girls’ varsity volleyball also does a Dig Pink game. Dig Pink is an organization that focuses specifically on raising money for breast cancer through volleyball. Since 2005 Dig Pink, a non profit organization, “has been laser focused on a single goal: to help people living with metastatic breast cancer see more tomorrows”, according to their website. Unlike many nonprofits, Dig Pink recruits scientists and research teams to operate their own search for treatments of breast cancer.
This year girls’ varsity volleyball had a bake sale that raised around $350 for Ding Pink. When asked about how the Dig Pink bake sale worked, sophomore Chloe Patrone said that “it was all team led. We worked one shift, but then we also had people that would work during STAT and during all three of the volleyball games happening, and Profe Meyer was there to support us, but we were primarily running it.”
Not only did field hockey and volleyball contribute with bake sales, but junior varsity tennis held a bake sale raising around $200 for breast cancer research. Even though all sports did not hold fundraisers, they all showed support for the thousands of women who battle with breast cancer, by holding a “pink game.” Similarly to sports holding a “pink game,” the Upper School held a pink dress down day to spread awareness and to give another way to express support to all women who have dealt with breast cancer.
With so many teams rallying around this cause, it is clear how important it is to the St. Stephen’s and St. Agnes community. Coach Koroma remarked that “it’s a pretty prevalent form of cancer and is probably something that most individuals have a relative, a friend, or know someone that has either suffered from or is suffering from breast cancer or has a mom or a grandmother or knows someone that’s passed away. So I would say it has a significant amount of impact with most members of our community”
