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Sports

Sachem Comes Together For Breast Cancer Fundraiser

East and North girls basketball programs join with district staff to create a fundraiser for the Maurer Foundation for Breast Health Education.

When the Sachem East and North girls varsity teams warmed up prior to their League I match up Saturday night, they weren’t sporting their usual warm-ups. Instead, they wore pink tee-shirts in support of breast cancer awareness. On the back of North senior Erin McNulty’s shirt, a special message read “I’m Playing for Aunt Kerry.”

“She’s my dad’s sister,” McNulty said, explaining that her aunt was diagnosed with breast cancer two years ago.

Seems that everyone has an Aunt Kerry in their family.

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Saturday’s Sachem Girls Basketball Heritage Day was a fundraiser with proceeds going to the Maurer Foundation for Breast Health Education. The event included girls games at the middle school, junior varsity and varsity level. It was a full day of basketball, silent auctions, 50/50 raffles and plenty of camaraderie. On Friday, educators from the Maurer Foundation visited schools, and students and staff were encouraged to wear pink to celebrate “Think Pink Day.” Sachem Athletic Director Pete Blieberg hopes that this will not be a one-time event.

“Our goal is to make this annual," he said. "The really nice thing is that the whole community came together for this."

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It was Blieberg, former legendary Sachem girls basketball coach Risa Zander, Sachem East alum, supporter and game day announcer Michael Feldstein, and others, who led efforts to put this event together, most of which happened over the past three weeks. But it was Zander that many pointed to as their motivating force. A teacher in the district for 30 years, she was four months retired when she was diagnosed with breast cancer, eight years ago.

“This is all about education,” Zander said. “Teaching students, really everyone, to know about the risks, self examinations, healthy living. Education is what the Maurer Foundation is about.”

Sachem Superintendent James Nolan has seen the improvement in health education first hand, recalling his own days in secondary schools.

“I remember when I was in seventh grade and my brother—I think he was in ninth grade—came home with a health book that talked about, and had pictures relating to sex education,” Nolan said. “I thought my parents were going to go through the roof.

“There’s so much information now, it’s important that we educate our children about issues such as cancer.”

On this day, volunteers - many of them East football players, but also parents, staff and others - lined the hallway adjacent to the gym, encouraging attendees to place their raffle tickets and bids for a wide variety of products and services donated by local business.

“It’s nice to see everyone together, supporting one another. It’s what Sachem has to offer,” said Brenda Doherty, a volunteer, whose daughter Katie plays on the East basketball team. “This is about awareness—not just awareness about breast cancer but all cancers. Kids need to know that they should take care of themselves. This is one of those things that pull people together, and today, there’s a real sense of community.”

If breast cancer awareness and education was in the forefront on this day, clearly, many echoed Doherty’s feelings about a sense of community.

“Since the split [in high schools], there haven’t been a lot of events that brings the two high schools together,” said Feldstein, a substitute teacher who is well known as the Sachem East girls basketball public address announcer. “Today was about family and kids. Basketball is just the backdrop.”

In the program attendees received, the welcoming message read, “Today We Are One … We Are Sachem.” It was a theme repeated by many.

“It is one Sachem,” Nolan said. “Look at the kids, today, the way they work together. We often learn more from our kids than what we teach them.”

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