Hoops For Hope In The Fight Against Breast Cancer

We have a chance this week to add our voices to the fight against breast cancer. I know it can get overwhelming when there are dozens of charities asking for money during the fundraising season. This event is fairly easy and even fun, however.

The Penguin Student-Athlete Advisory Committee at Dominican University is staging a benefit event during a Pacific West Conference basketball doubleheader with Hawaii Pacific University on Thursday, Feb. 23, in the Conlan Center.

“Penguins Play 4 Kay” is a breast cancer awareness night built around the women’s basketball game at 5:30 p.m. and the men’s game at 7:30 p.m. Fans are encouraged to wear pink to the games and PSAAC will be selling a limited number of pink “PSAAC Supports Play 4 Kay” T-shirts with proceeds going toward the Kay Yow Cancer Fund.

As a special tribute, fans are encouraged to write on the T-shirt the name of a friend or family member who has battled cancer. Cancer survivors will be honored during the games.

T-shirts can be purchased for $8 apiece in advance of the event during lunch time at Caleruega Hall on campus or in the Department of Athletics at the Conlan Center during normal business hours. T-shirts also will be sold at the game for $10. Anyone buying a “PSAAC Supports Play 4 Kay” T-shirt will receive free admission to the doubleheader.

Play 4 Kay was established in 2007 through the Kay Yow Cancer Fund in honor of the popular North Carolina State women’s basketball coach who had three bouts with breast cancer. Diagnosed with the disease in 1987, Yow waged a courageous battle until her death in 2009.

Before her death, Yow joined forces with the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association and The V Foundation for Cancer Research to form the Kay Yow Cancer Fund, a 501 c (3) charitable organization committed to being a part of finding an answer to fight against women’s cancers through raising money for scientific research, assisting the underserved and unifying people for a common cause.

For more information, contact Dominican women's assistant basketball coach Toni West.

For more information on cancer and carcinoid cancer, consider these sites:

Carcinoid Cancer Foundation

Caring for Carcinoid Foundation

Carcinoid Cancer Awareness Network

Carcinoid.com

Stanford Medicine Cancer Institute

Cedars-Sinai Hospital, Los Angeles

Marin Cancer Institute

University Hospital, Basel, Switzerland

Jimmy V Foundation

American Cancer Society