The annual Dig Pink volleyball game to raise awareness and money for breast cancer research will be Oct. 25 at 6 p.m. in Upper Kovler Gymnasium when the Maroons varsity team will play Latin School of Chicago. The junior varsity and 9/10 teams will each play at 5 p.m.
Dig Pink is a nationwide event for colleges and high schools to fundraise toward cancer research, as well as raising awareness regarding breast cancer. Dig Pink first started in 2006 at West Springfield High School and began at U-High in 2012.
Last year, the volleyball team raised over $2,500 and the team hopes to achieve around the same this year. Head volleyball coach Lisa Kirchhoff, said overall she’s very grateful to be a part of a community that supports such important causes.
Ms. Kirchhoff, herself a breast cancer survivor, said people can contribute online.
She said Dig Pink is an important cause as it raises awareness for a topic that has a lot of stigma around it and normalizes the topic, which can be a matter of life or death.
“It’s important to raise awareness of how imperative it is for women to be vigilant about their family history with breast cancer,” Ms. Kirchoff, whose mother has had breast cancer twice, said.
Ms. Kirchhoff said that heightened awareness makes women feel more compelled to go to their physician at a younger age if they have a family history of breast cancer. This was true in her case as she went very often to get mammograms and was caught in stage one.
