Nine Teams To Host Breast Cancer Awareness Swim Meets In October

The swimming and diving teams from Duke and Florida State will make their dual meets this Saturday a bit more special, as both competitions will also serve as special “Breast Cancer Awareness Meets,” with each school looking to raise the most money and earn a bonus donation to the charity of their choice. The two meets are part of a nationwide contest with seven other schools to raise the most money for their charities.

The Contest

Each team will ask for a $5 entry donation per person on the day of their designated October home meet. The teams will also sell pink t-shirts promoting breast cancer awareness at the meet for $15 apiece. Teams will subtract the cost of their t-shirts from the meet entry fees and t-shirt sale profits for a final team total. That amount will be donated to the team’s designated charity.

The Stakes

The team boasting the largest profit will earn a $9,000 “pot” for their chosen breast cancer organization. The pot will be comprised of funds contributed by nine donors, as each team is responsible for finding a donor to provide $1,000 towards the overall total.

The Duke Blue Devils are leading the effort to raise support through the Breast Cancer Awareness POD Meet, an inaugural philanthropic competition to benefit breast cancer research. All profits raised at Taishoff Aquatics Pavilion will be donated to the Duke Cancer Institute, to be earmarked for breast cancer research.

“My wife being a 13-year survivor of breast cancer, I think this is an incredible cause,” said Duke head coach Dan Colella. “[Assistant coach] Jesse Moore’s idea of putting together this challenge involving a number of universities brings to light to a very important thing in life that so many people deal with. We want to be supportive of that. We’re excited to be a part of this cancer awareness event next weekend, it also being the kickoff to our 2015-16 collegiate season. We hope to fill the stands – we want to be the school that has the biggest fan base and who is going to receive the funds to put towards cancer research here at Duke.”

Florida State’s meet will benefit the Sharon Ewing Walker Breast Health Center in Tallahassee.

Later this month, teams from Boston College, Kansas, Notre Dame, Ohio State, Tennessee, Texas A&M and UCLA will hold their breast cancer awareness meet at their respective home pools during the month of October.

“When approached about our interest in this meet, it was a no brainer,” says Notre Dame men’s head coach Matt Tallman. “I am excited about getting a packed house for our meet, and doing it for such a fantastic cause. Cancer has hit home for me recently, and it is never fun for anyone to deal with. If the results of the ‘competition’ can help even one person just a little, it’s worth it to participate.”

A listing of the meets can be found below. Teams who have not officially named their meet of choice will update information on their respective websites as they become available.

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Special thanks to the above universities for providing information for this article.

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Bao Nguyen

8 years ago

Pink suits?