Feb. 27, 2009

Rome, Ga. - With the combined efforts of the women's basketball, baseball, and softball teams, the Shorter College athletic department presented a check for $15,000 to the Breast Center at Floyd Medical Center in Rome, Ga., at Thursday night's basketball game in the Winthrop-King Centre.

On hand to accept the check were two people from the Breast Center - Lauren Adams, Director of Development for Floyd Medical and Amee Griffin, Director of the Breast Center. Presenting the check were the coaches and senior members of the Shorter basketball, baseball and softball teams, as well as from the Model High and Rome High School basketball teams.

"We send our thanks to Shorter College for helping us serve the women in this region with breast cancer," said Adams.

At the beginning of October, the Shorter Lady Hawks softball team held their second annual `Border Battle for Breast Cancer', with five teams participating from the region. Shorter, as well as other teams, got into the "pink spirit" by playing in pink t-shirts, which they also sold in the community. All players, coaches, and umpires were given pink wristbands (donated by Mizuno) and played in them throughout the day. All proceeds from team donations, parent/fan contributions, gate, and concessions were donated.

The Lady Hawks basketball team and cheerleaders followed this with a Cancer Awareness Day on Nov. 22 with their game against Auburn-Montgomery. Along with the Shorter game, high school games were also held with teams from Model High, Rome High, and Excel Christian, with all proceeds from the game and pink t-shirt sales being donated. Model and Rome combined to sell over 250 pink t-shirts.

Lastly, on Saturday, Feb. 14, the Shorter Hawks baseball team held the inaugural "Striking Out Breast Cancer" benefit game at the Robert H. Ledbetter Baseball Complex to raise funds for the Breast Center. The Hawks donned pink baseball caps during the game and the Cumberlands players and coaches wore pink sweatbands.

Three members of the Shorter community were also on hand to throw out the first pitch - Joan Ledbetter, Career Coordinator for Student Services; Joan Blackwelder, Admissions Assistant to the Vice-President of Enrollment Management; and Beth Benton, a receptionist at Shorter's North Atlanta campus.

"We wanted to help out," Shorter head coach Matt Larry said about the decision to support breast cancer awareness and breast cancer victims. "The softball and women's basketball teams have been so successful in the fall raising money for this cause, we wanted to do something in the spring. This has made our guys more aware of the magnitude of breast cancer."