Marist Varsity Girls Tennis Supports Northside Hospital’s Breast Care Program

The Varsity Girls Tennis team and The Sport of Giving recently presented Northside Hospital’s Breast Care Program with nearly $4,800 to help raise awareness of breast cancer. 

The money was raised during the tennis team’s annual breast cancer awareness activities.  This is the second year that Marist has supported breast cancer patients at Northside through The Sport of Giving. 

In 2010, the tennis team donated nearly $6,000 toward patient education materials for the Breast Care Center at Northside Hospital-Forsyth.

The Sport of Giving is a local, nonprofit organization, dedicated to raising monies and awareness in support of women’s cancer care and prevention in Metro Atlanta through area tennis tournaments, golf tournaments and other run/walk events.  Since 2007, the group has been a generous supporter of Northside Hospital and, cumulatively, has contributed more than $115,000 to the hospital’s breast care services in recent years.

"All sports’ teams at Marist are required to perform some type of community service and the girls felt that raising funds to help with breast cancer treatment and care would be the most appropriate," said Father Francis Kissel S.M., head coach, Marist School Varsity Girls Tennis. 

"The girls selected The Sport of Giving because it is a local organization and, when given the opportunity by them to choose a direction for our efforts, we felt that by giving to Northside Hospital we knew where our funds were going."

To raise money, Marist hosted a "Shop ‘Til You Drop" event at Festivity at The Forum in Norcross.  Twenty percent of pr ofits that day were donated to The Sport of Giving and Northside.  The team also sold "aces."  Throughout the season, the girls solicited pledges and donations for the aces they served during all region tennis matches.  In all, the girls accumulated 269 aces.  All proceeds went to support Northside’s Breast Care Program.

"It is with great pride and appreciation that we accept this gracious gift from such a fine group of young women," said Susan Casella, breast health coordinator, Northside Hospital.  "Their efforts contribute to making Northside Hospital’s Breast Care Program a comprehensive, state-of-the-art facility."

Marist's first girls’ tennis team was formed in 1978, two years after girls were admitted to Marist.& nbsp; During the 1980s, the team would win six State Championships and, in 1987, they won the National High School Championship.  From 1990 through 1994, Marist would finish 2nd in state competition.  Finally in 1995, they won their first State Championship in the team tournament format and would continue to win the following six consecutive State Championships.  Moving up to the AAAA classification in 2001, the girls again won State Championships in 2001 through 2006, and again 2009-2011, giving the program 21 state championships since 1978.  Their 12 consecutive titles of the 90s and 00s still ranks 3rd in the national record books.

More cases of breast cancer are treated at Northside Hospital than at any other community hospital in the Southeast.  A National Cancer Institute (NCI) Cancer Centers Program, the hospital offers a complete range of services for pati ents including education, genetic counseling, imaging, radiation oncology, surgery, support, rehabilitation and more – covering every aspect of breast care.  For more information about supporting Northside’s Breast Care Program, visit www.northside.com and click "donations."

Article contributed by Northside Hospital.