Each October for the past 15 years, local sports teams have donned pink jerseys and worked tirelessly to help increase breast cancer awareness by hosting Pink Games.
But their efforts are about far more than just awareness of a struggle that touches many families at some point. It’s about real, substantial financial contributions that help the Hope 4 You Breast Cancer Foundation provide mammograms for uninsured and underinsured women in the area.
Since 2007, Hope 4 You has provided area hospitals and clinics with close to $800,000 for mammograms for those in need.
Earlier this month, the Carthage High School volleyball team presented a $5,050 check to Hope 4 You, the fruit of several fundraisers the team held. Included in those fundraisers was a Serve-A-Thon in which players solicited pledges for each successful serve.
According to Carthage head volleyball coach Chloe Allmoslecher, her team has raised more than $70,000 in the past six years for Hope 4 You.
“We have some business sponsors and some donations,” Allmoslecher said of the team’s fundraising. “We’ve always had great community support and love partnering with them.”
The Carthage volleyball team is just one of a number of local schools that have worked to support the foundation.
Hope 4 You founder Sharon Clark said that in past years, sometimes more than 50% of the foundation’s donations come from fundraisers by local sports teams.
October has become synonymous with “Pink Games” at local schools since former Carl Junction head volleyball coach Sarah Wall got the ball rolling on the event more than 15 years ago.
“Each school raises funds differently,” Clark said. “Sarah Wall started this while at CJ, and I’m forever thankful to her for that. It’s unreal and sometimes hard to wrap my head around, because without their support, we could not survive. We truly would be lost without their continued support. Every dollar raised is appreciated, and we are always hoping more schools join in.”
Carl Junction continued the tradition with its annual Pink Game Oct. 15. Clark estimates that over the past 15 years, Carl Junction High School has raised close to $150,000 to support the foundation, including a few thousand dollars each year from its archery program.
Clark said Joplin volleyball raised more than $5,000 last year and that the foundation has also benefited from fundraisers at Sarcoxie High School and Missouri Southern State University football, softball, volleyball and basketball games.
Wall, now head volleyball coach at Cottey College, talked about why she initially got involved, including her friendship with MSSU Hall of Fame coach Pat Lipira, who had breast cancer.
“When I started learning about Hope 4 You and how the money raised went directly to the women in our area, that really hit home for me,” Wall said.
Wall said she and her team worked to grow the benefit each year, including selling T-shirts, putting together gift baskets and silent auctions. She said hairdresser Molly Miller, mother of player Lexi Miller, even put pink extensions in girls’ hair as a fundraiser.
“Every year, the goal was to beat the year before,” Wall said.
The event grew when her daughter, Bradyn Webb, then head coach at Carthage and now Carl Junction’s coach, decided to get involved with a Carthage High School Pink Night.
“It became kind of a competition to see how much money we raised at Carl Junction and how much could they raise at Carthage,” Wall said. “It was a big battle, and I think that year combined we may have raised more than $25,000 between the two schools.”
It proved contagious at Carl Junction, Wall said.
“Other sports wanted to get involved, so it’s been an explosion of greatness with all the people there, but it definitely wasn’t me. It was all the community members there at Carl Junction that helped us be successful.”
Each Pink Game recognizes a breast cancer survivor who is named honorary coach for the night. That hit close to home earlier this month at Carthage High School when Susan Butler, mother of Carthage player Layla Howard-Butler, was named honorary coach.
Wall also said she had cancer survivors speak to her teams about their journey with cancer and it served to help her girls understand the importance of self-checks and mammograms.
Lipira, a Hope 4 You board member and 20-year survivor of breast cancer this month, said the Pink Games serve not only to benefit the foundation but the teams as well.
“I suspect, based on statistics, that most of the girls on a high school volleyball team know someone, whether it’s a relative or a friend or friend’s mother or grandmother, that has had breast cancer.”
Lipira said rallying around that serves to strengthen bonds on a team.
“I think anytime a team has a goal, like working together to raise money for Hope 4 You, it’s another form of team bonding, saying, ‘Let’s all do our part and see what we can do.’”
Lipira said that each time a team hands her a check for the foundation, she has one message for them.
“You probably saved a life. You won’t know it, but you probably did,” Lipira said.