Team Granby Girls Raised More Than $6K For Breast Cancer Awareness With Community Support

A community effort from Granby residents and those in surrounding towns, along with support from people across the country, helped Granby residents Morgan King and Meghan Russell raise more than $6,000 for breast cancer education, outreach and research.

King and Russell participated in the Susan G. Komen 3-Day for the Cure, a 60-mile, three-day walk across Washington D.C. that took more than 30 hours and carried a fundraising threshold of $5,000 for participating teams. Russell was grateful to all those who contributed, from individuals who bought friendship bracelets made by Russell’s daughter Maddy and Maddy’s friend Ani Cashman to support the cause to local businesses like Geissler’s, which let the group hold a major fundraising event on its grounds, and Tina’s Ice Cream.

Major fundraisers for King and Russell — who chose the collective name Team Granby Girls for the event — included Tina and Tom Shaw of Tina’s Ice Cream, who raised more than $1,000 for the pair at the BFFs for Breast Cancer event at her shop on Oct. 6.

“It was really, really great,” Meghan Russell said of the BFFs for Breast Cancer event at Tina’s.

Maddy Russell and Ani Cashman made more than 250 friendship bracelets to support Team Granby Girls and took special orders, delivering locally and shipping across the country. Another contributor to the cause, The Bead Shop in Southwick, MA, donated a significant amount of materials to make the bracelets.

“It shows great strength and generosity to reach so deeply into your pockets and help those you don't even know,” Meghan Russell said. “[It] teaches great compassion to our children to come out and support them.”

“We want to thank the people we don’t know personally,” Meghan Russell said, noting that the outpouring of local support meant people she had never met before helped Team Granby Girls reach its fundraising goals. “And we want to thank the community.”

Meghan Russell was pleased, to say the least, with the high level of community involvement that made Team Granby Girls a success. Besides raising funds for breast cancer awareness, she said it taught an important lesson to Maddy and Ani.

“That kindness is the way we show our children that hard work and effort in something you believe in can pay off — and possibly save a life,” Russell said. “Is there a better lesson to teach our kids?”