Posted by Joe O
on 9/10/2010, 12:00 pm
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Daily Times, Local News: Softball players help fight cancer
By John Kopp
A few hundred softball players will be out on the softball fields at Camp Upland in Upland on Saturday hoping for a big day at the plate.
They'll gather because they enjoy the sport, but also because they're trying to raise support to find a cure for breast cancer.
Twenty teams are slated to participate in the Second Annual "Softball for a Cure" tournament. The event benefits four women who are walking in the Susan G. Komen 3-Day for a Cure, a national breast cancer awareness walk in October. Each of the four women need to raise $2,300 to walk. Thus, the money raised at the softball tourney will help those women reach that target.
Tournament organizer Kristine Davis said the event raised $6,068 last year, its first, when 18 teams participated.
Davis said she expects about 300-350 people, including players, to be on hand for the event, which will also feature a raffle, dunk tank and other activities for children.
First pitch is slated for 9 a.m. with the finals scheduled to start at 5 p.m. Umpires from the Amateur Softball Association of Pennsylvania are donating their time.
Davis said the idea for the tournament was sparked last year, when she was searching for ways to support 3-Day For A Cure and bumped into Joe Organek, the commissioner of local softball leagues who helped organize the event.
Davis said she chooses to support breast cancer research because the disease runs in her family.
"I've had relatives pass away from it and I've had relatives fight it and beat it," Davis said. "A lot of times, it's hard to even get a doctor to agree to a screening when you're in your 20s. With breast cancer, if it's detected early enough, it doesn't have to be deadly."
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