Lakes High's volleyball players were hit with the sobering facts on Thursday during practice.
No, those facts had nothing to do with spike, blocks and serving. They were all about breast cancer and the Eagles' upcoming "Volley for the Cure" fund-raising match against visiting Antioch on Friday.
"Coach ( Carla) Thompson told us that the statistics show that one or two of us on this team will probably develop breast cancer in our lifetimes," said Lakes senior Mandy Fischer. "That makes you think a lot. It also makes us want to work just that much harder to make our 'Volley for the Cure" night a big success."
Thompson knows all about the statistics, but she also knows that those numbers don't tell about the survival and success stories. She is an eight-year breast cancer survivor.
"We all know about Coach's history with breast cancer," said Fischer. "We know how important this night is for her."
Thompson started the "Volley for the Cure" match three years ago and teamed up with Antioch to make the night a big success. The two teams have raised close to $20,000 in the three matches for the Susan G. Koman Breast Cancer Foundation -- including an estimated $7,000 on Friday.
"It's just a great event," said Thompson. "I'm just so happy that everyone in the two schools gets together to raise awareness for breast cancer and raise money to help find a cure."
Thompson started the annual event after learning about a similar project at a high school in Ohio.
Now, just about every school in Lake County and numerous schools throughout the state stage an annual "Volley for the Cure" contest.
"Carla has done a great job getting this whole thing organized," said Antioch coach Glen Heitman . "She deserves a lot of credit."
Lakes' volleyball coach Carla Thompson poses for a photo with the Lakes and Antioch teams before their Volleyball for the Cure game Friday night.
(Michael Schmidt/News-Sun)
Close to a 1,000 pink t-shirts were sold at both schools, with the wearers able to get into Friday's volleyball match as well as the home football game at Lakes against Antioch. Raffles and special games to raise more money were being held at the volleyball and football contests.
"It's all about helping raise money," said Antioch senior Lauren Grant. "Whoever wins or loses doesn't really matter. We want to raise awareness as much as we can."
And the event is raising plenty of money.
"I had a family just donate $500 because they just lost someone close to them to breast cancer," said Thompson. "What can you say to that? It puts it all in perspective."
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