Posted: 02/08/2011
BETHLEHEM, Pa. – The Lehigh women’s basketball team announced that its contest against Army on Saturday, Feb. 12 will be its annual Women’s Basketball Coaches Association (WBCA) Pink Zone game. The WBCA Pink Zone is an initiative to raise breast cancer awareness in women’s basketball, on campuses and in the community.
"The Pink Zone game is our means as a collective group of women's basketball coaches to step up and make a difference to a very important cause," said Lehigh head coach Sue Troyan. "As a collective group, we have a wonderful opportunity to use our sport as a means of making a difference in people’s lives by helping bring awareness to the issue and raise money for the cause."
The game at 7 p.m. on Saturday will be declared a "Pink Out" as all fans in attendance are encouraged to wear pink to support this cause. The Mountain Hawks will be wearing pink warm up uniforms and pink jerseys during the game. All fans and students are encouraged to attend as Lehigh Gas Corporation will donate $1 to the Susan G. Komen for the Cure fund for every fan that is in attendance on Saturday.
"Our program would like to personally encourage all of our fans to come out to Stabler on Saturday evening, wear pink, and make a difference to this cause," said Troyan. "We have a very generous offer from one of our corporate sponsors, Lehigh Gas, to donate $1 for every fan in attendance to support this cause. The more people in the arena - the more money we raise for this cause."
All Lehigh students that attend the game will be able to swipe their ID card for a chance to win an iPad. Fans will also have the opportunity to win free pink shirts that will be tossed into the crowd. Pink merchandise will be sold in the Stabler Arena lobby with a portion of the proceeds going towards breast cancer research.
"Just by showing up - you too can make a difference," said Troyan. "Cancer is something that will touch all of us in some way during our lifetime, and this is an easy way to help make a difference. We hope to fill the arena with pink and have a true "pink out"."
In last season’s Pink Zone game, nearly 1,500 fans were in attendance to help support the cause, as the Mountain Hawks defeated Lafayette, 68-58.
The WBCA began the WBCA Pink Zone in 2007. The late Kay Yow, former North Carolina State University head women's basketball coach, served as the catalyst for the initiative after her third reoccurrence of breast cancer in 2006, and then later passed away in January 2009.
In 2007, over 120 schools unified for this effort and helped make the inaugural year a success. In 2008, over 1,200 teams and organizations participated in the event, reaching over 830,000 fans and raising over $930,000 for breast cancer awareness and research. The 2009 campaign raised over $1.3 million, reached over 912,000 fans, unified more than 1,600 participating teams and organizations, and saw 56+ schools break attendance records at their event. In 2010, over 1,800 participants came together to surpass $1,045,000 in donations and reached more than 922,000 fans across the nation. Over 22 schools broke attendance records through their participation.
Overall, the WBCA Pink Zone has raised nearly $3.3 Million, has reached almost 2.7 Million fans, and has unified over 4,700 participants in only four years.
For more information on the WBCA Pink Zone, please visit http://www.wbca.org/2011pinkzone/.