Cortlandt Youth, Recreation Center Participants Fundraising for Breast Cancer Awareness

From Town of Cortlandt:

The Town of Cortlandt Youth and Recreation Center’s A.S.A.P. (Always Striving; Always Positive) Leadership Club members and friends have been busy fundraising for the Making Strides Against Breast Cancer of Westchester Walk which is taking place this Sunday, October 16 at Manhattanville College in Purchase, N.Y. Over 20 youth in grades 6th – 9th from five different schools have been collaborating the last eight weeks to raise awareness and meet their fundraising goal of $3,000!

The youth knew in order to reach & hopefully surpass their fundraising goal, they would have to get the community involved. They quickly went to work and came up with a slogan, “Stomp Out Breast Cancer”, which gave them their team name “The Cortlandt YC Cancer Stompers”, which in turn helped them to create their two logos (see attached). The logos were illustrated by A.S.A.P. Member Jacob Klein, of Cortlandt Manor. The logos were used for all marketing pieces, their team t-shirts and hand-made coasters. A.S.A.P. Member Kayla Campos of Croton-on-Hudson came up with the idea for the coaster which her family donated the materials for.

The next phase included developing fundraising events, collecting donations and selling breast cancer merchandise at Town Sponsored Events as well as outreach to the local businesses for store fronts to hang their flyer, counters to leave a donation bin on and gift certificates to use as raffle prizes. Together they were able to secure over 20 businesses to sponsor their efforts! A full list of sponsors is available on the town website.

The youth didn’t stop there; they also created their own music video to spread awareness and continue their fundraising efforts! The lyrics were written and sung by A.S.A.P. Member Alex Turk, of Cortlandt Manor. Alex also did the beatboxing which provided the background music to the video. To view the video go to In addition to the team effort, some have also taken on the task of fundraising individually as many of them, like many of us, have a personal connection to this disease. A.S.A.P. Member Gabriel Ardito of Croton-on-Hudson is one of several youth who has been sharing his story.

“My reason for walking in the Making Strides event is to raise money in memory of my babysitter Mena. Mena took care of me when I was just a little dude. She died of cancer and I want to remember her by walking in this event.” To date Gabriel has surpassed his individual fundraising goal of $1,500!”

With the event just days away the YC Youth have raised over $4,000; surpassing their goal of $3,000 and are still going strong! They are now hoping to reach a new goal of $5,000 by this Sunday’s event!

The Town of Cortlandt Youth & Recreation Center is committed to providing youth with a variety of programs which are social, educational and fun! It is located at 3 Memorial Drive, Croton, next to the Cortlandt Train Station. For more information, call (914) 736-0498 or email the director, Katherine Sclafani at katherines@townofcortlandt.com or Assistant Director, Offutt Porter, at offuttp@townofcortlandt.com.

Photo courtesy of Town of Cortlandt