Number of Participants: 1
Hours Donated: 100
Value of Time Served: $845
Event Amount Raised: $2,000
Event Type: Health & Medicine
Sport: Girls Basketball
Date: December 2, 2021
Location:
Quincy High School
Coddington Street, Quincy
MA
About:
Last year I was contacted by the “A Shot For Life” organization to participate in their annual 24 hour basketball game meant to emphasize the emotional and physical struggles that cancer patients experience in their first 24 hours of their diagnosis, and since cancer has impacted people close to me I couldn’t pass up on the offer. Their event sparked an interest for charity work through the use of athletics.
Currently one of my long-time teammates is battling cancer and she has initially inspired my devotion to this event. At Quincy High, us seniors have a group chat where we discuss upcoming events and ideas we would like to plan, so I explained my idea and they all jumped on it. I want to start off and say that without the help of our Athletic Director Kevin Mahoney this event wouldn’t have run as smooth as it did. I started planning this event in late September and planned as much as I could in my free time until about the day before the event. I scheduled the brackets, the itinerary, and scheduled the use for Faxon Field all in the course of two weeks. I spent days developing different game plans to ensure this event would be inclusive to all who participated and thanks to those around me we were able to establish 10 teams totaling over 100 student-athlete participants calling the event “The Battle of the Presidents.” (Since our school mascot is the presidents)
My goal was to raise a minimum of $1000 dollars, by having open donations and a $10 dollar participation donation for each athlete. A lot of people asked me why I would put such stress on myself, planning something so complicated, and it was complicated. I reached a point in the planning phase where I started thinking that I was in over my head putting together such a big event on my own, but the smiles and memories made on that day made the overwhelming stress very much worth it. As athletes the bonds we form become a huge part of us as people , knowing that we can take our abilities to make a difference is rewarding on its own and with this mentality, we went into the event determined to double the donation minimum and we did just that. I am so beyond blessed to be part of a community of such amazing people, and thanks to them we may have just started a new Quincy tradition that will inspire others of the importance of coming together for an important cause.