CARROLLTON, Georgia – The West Georgia Tech women’s
basketball team donned pink for the cause of breast cancer
awareness as they hosted the second-annual WGTC “Hoops for
Hope” Breast Cancer Awareness women’s basketball
jamboree on October 19.
The event, held at Oak Mountain Academy in Carrollton, raised
$625 each for Tanner Medical Foundation’s Mammogram
Assistance Fund and local survivor Rosie Holley’s Hope for
the Journey Foundation, earmarked for breast cancer awareness,
prevention and research.
A special program was held between two of the games with Holley
serving as guest speaker sharing her story of surviving the disease
that took her mother’s life at the age of 68.
Holley’s Hope for the Journey Foundation is an education
and support group for women who are touched by breast cancer either
themselves or through someone that they know such as a close family
member or friend.
Tanner Medical Foundation’s Mammogram Assistance Fund
funds mammograms for area women who could not otherwise afford the
life-saving screening.
According to Kathy Mathis, director of the Tanner Medical
Foundation, each woman has a 1-in-8 chance of developing breast
cancer, and mammograms are considered the best way to find the
disease early.
"We are very grateful to the student-athletes and the staff of
the West Georgia Technical College Foundation for this very
generous gift,” Mathis said. “In the last year,
community support funded mammograms for 326 women in our community.
This simply could not be possible without the generosity of
partners like West Georgia Tech Foundation and the WGTC
women’s basketball program.”
West Georgia Tech women’s basketball head coach Kenny
Edwards spearheaded the event, which started at noon with a contest
between conference rivals West Georgia Tech and Southern Crescent
Tech. That game was followed by a WGTC men’s basketball
intrasquad scrimmage game.
Southern Crescent and West Georgia Tech played a second game to
wrap up the event. West Georgia Tech won both contests over
SCTC.
“Breast cancer research and awareness is something that
has always been near and dear to my heart,” Edwards said.
“Almost all of us has been touched in some way by the
disease. I try to promote a philosophy of giving back to the
community with our basketball program, and we are excited and
blessed to have an opportunity to raise money and awareness through
basketball.”