Girls Soccer Team to Think Pink

Hatters Stadium will be dotted with pink Tuesday as the Keith Valley Middle School girls soccer team kicks off an annual breast cancer fundraiser.

The team's second Lisa Giardetti Classic–named in honor of a Hatboro-Horsham athletic director secretary who lost her battle with stage four breast cancer in December 2011–aims to raise funds to benefit the Susan G. Komen Foundation.

Besides a 45-minute game for both seventh- and eighth-graders, students will be selling baked goods, balloons, chances and offering a 50-50 raffle. Proceeds will benefit the Susan G. Komen Foundation. 

The game, which will be played against Springfield Township Middle School’s girls soccer team, will feature a special half-time balloon release. Before and during the game’s first half, students will be selling pink balloons for $1. 

Attendees are encouraged to write the name of someone they know who's been touched by breast cancer. During the game’s half-time, the balloons will be simultaneously launched.

The event began two years ago, when the Keith Valley Middle School girls soccer team hosted a pink game to support a player’s aunt, who was battling breast cancer. While the event was small, the team still managed to raise about $700 in the span of a week, and honored Physical Education teacher Marie Schmucker, a breast cancer survivor.

Last year, the team decided to not only continue hosting a Pink Game, but also wanted to expand it and name it in honor of Giardetti, who was 38 at the time of her death and had two school-aged sons attending the Hatboro-Horsham School District.  

Last year's classic raised almost $4,000, according to the Facebook page set up for the annual event and students are looking to top that number this year.

Anyone interested in volunteering at the game can contact Kevin Deissler at kdeissler@hatboro-horsham.org.

If you go

Keith Valley Middle School's pink game will kick off at 6:15 p.m., at Hatboro-Horsham High School’s Hatter Stadium, 899 Horsham Road in Horsham.