Holy Innocents' Golden Bears Battle Breast Cancer | Community Spirit

SANDY SPRINGS, Ga. -- This October, the Holy Innocents' Episcopal School (HIES) athletic teams will battle more than just their opponents when they take to the fields. The Golden Bears will go to bat against breast cancer, as well.

During Breast Cancer Awareness Month, HIES teams are showing their support in various ways over 31 days:

•Team parents are purchasing pairs of pink shoelaces for $2 each so that team members can wear them during competitions.

•Wristbands are being sold for $1 at various events throughout the school, and all teams have been encouraged to buy and wear them.

•Teams are being asked to sponsor a game or match. For example, Oct. 3, 2012, is “Dig Pink” day for the volleyball squad—a match where money will be donated for each dig (defensive move) compiled during the outing. Softball, for example, may do the same for each hit or run the team makes, while football and cross-country are thinking up their own creative scenarios.

The American Cancer Society estimates that this year, 226,870 new cases of invasive breast cancer, and 63,000 cases of non-invasive cancer in the earliest stages, will be found in women alone. Some 39,510 women are also expected to die from breast cancer in 2012. (Breast cancer is the second-leading cause of cancer in women, behind lung cancer.)

Some 2,190 new cases of breast cancer will be diagnosed among American men also this year, and 410 deaths are expected, scientists say.

“We can be part of the solution,” HIES Volleyball Coach Taylor Noland said. “With early screening and treatment, we can conquer this disease. The money we raise here at Holy Innocents’ will go to research to find a cure for breast cancer.”

For more information on contributing, contact: taylor.noland@hies.org.

Proceeds go to the National Breast Cancer Foundation, Inc.

For more information, visit: http://tinyurl.com/9qjamob