CIS schools raise over $120,000 to fight breast cancer

March 19, 2012 (CALGARY, Alta.) - The CIS Women's Basketball Coaches Association proudly announced Monday the organization had raised $98,706.92 for the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation in 2011-12 thanks to the fifth edition of its annual Shoot For The Cure initiative.

The impressive amount was unveiled prior to the gold medal final of the CIS championship at the University of Calgary's Jack Simpson Gymnasium.

Scott Edwards, vice-president of the WBCA and head coach at the University of Alberta, and Lindsay Druery, a student athlete from Lakehead University and the recipient of the 2012 Sylvia Sweeney Award, presented a cheque to Chelsea Draeger, manager of community partnerships for the CBCF, Prairies and NWT Region.

An additional $22,541.78 was amassed by schools that elected to donate their fundraised money to local or provincial organizations - including $7154.44 to the Quebec Breast Cancer Foundation - bringing this season's Shoot For The Cure overall total to $121,248.70, and the five-year total to over half a million dollars.

The initiative was launched in 2007-08 to raise awareness and money to fight the deadly disease and in five years, CIS women's basketball programs have now collected $512,394.58.

This season, for the first time, all 43 universities that field women's hoops teams participated by holding one or numerous fundraising games or activities over the course of the campaign.

The University of Waterloo Warriors and the school's athletics department continued to lead the way by raising $25,000. Cape Breton University and the University of New Brunswick also had very successful events, amassing just over $10,000 and $9,500, respectively.

"In addition to doing our best to raise money and awareness to fight this terrible disease, we had two other goals in mind this year," said Jeff Speedy, president of the WBCA, Shoot For The Cure project manager and head coach at UNB. "We wanted to have all of our teams participate, and raise enough money to get us over the half a million mark for the five years of this initiative. I am thrilled that we have accomplished those two goals!

"Our coaches, student athletes, athletic directors and sports information directors have really bought into Shoot For The Cure and are really making a positive difference in so many ways."

For more information on the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation or to make a donation, visit: http://www.cbcf.org/ 

Source: CIS Communications