(ANTIGONISH, N.S.) - A pair of StFX varsity teams has scored outstanding victories off the court.
With their annual fundraisers in support of the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation, the StFX women's basketball and volleyball teams collected more than $1,000.
Saturday afternoon (Feb. 9), at Oland Centre, the X-Women volleyball team hosted their ‘Serve for the Cure’ event as part of its AUS regular season match with the UNB Varsity Reds.
Last Thursday (Feb. 7), the X-Women basketball program staged their ‘Shoot for the Cure’ event, which coincided with their home game versus the rival Acadia Axewomen.
“StFX athletics and our student-athletes are proud to continue to host the annual Shoot for the Cure and Serve up a Cure events and support the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation,” Krista McKenna, StFX varsity athletics and sports information co-ordinator, said. “It is such a worthy cause that affects nearly everyone and we are happy to lend our support.”
During the celebrations, volunteers sold commemorative pink shirts, pink ribbons and sold 50-50 tickets, amongst other initiatives.
Although not abandoning their signature blue and white school colours, the squads also donned pink warm-up T-shirts, while some players wore socks of the same colour and other indicators of their support for the cause.
Both opposing teams also displayed pink in some way as a sign of support for the fundraisers.
At halftime of Shoot for the Cure, Leona Williams, a StFX alumna, spoke about the importance of the celebration, describing it as a “special night.”
“Every one of us has a connection and has been affected,” she said of cancer.
Williams, donning her pink X-Women T-Shirt reflected about her friend, and a mainstay of the Antigonish basketball community, Mabel Arsenault, who died in August 2005 after battling cancer for several years.
“It is fitting we are doing this here,” Williams said, noting Arsenault, for more than 25 years, spent Saturday mornings at Oland Centre as one of the leaders of the Antigonish Minor Basketball Association (AMBA) program.
At the end of the X-Women basketball game, captains Lia St. Pierre and Jocelyn Moore presented the game ball – pink in colour – to their teammate Anne Kiberd, whose mother, Colleen, is battling cancer.
In an emotional moment, which left few dry eyes on the court or in the stands, while also drawing a standing ovation, Kiberd made her way into the Oland Centre bleachers to present the special memento to her mother.
The elder Kiberd, a familiar face at X-Women games, raised the ball triumphantly as the cheers and applause continued.
Shoot & Serve for the Cure fundraisers take place annually at CIS members universities across Canada in support of the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation.
Source: StFX Sports Information