43
BHA hosts 5th annual Breast Cancer Awareness Game
Photo
Neighbors | Tim Cleveland.Boardman's goalkeeper made a save during the junior varsity game against Warren G. Harding for the fifth annual Breast Cancer Awareness Game at Boardman High School.
Photo
Neighbors | Tim Cleveland.Members of the Boardman girls soccer team lined up before their game against Warren G. Harding. Each player wore a sash with the name of the person they were playing in honor of. The names were of people who had either died from breast cancer of have had or do have the disease and are still alive.
Photo
Neighbors | Tim Cleveland.Several items were either sold or raffled off to help raise money to fight breast cancer during the fifth annual Breast Cancer Awareness Game at Boardman High School.
Photo
Neighbors | Tim Cleveland.Four Boardman High School girls soccer players posed together, wearing the special jerseys they wore against Warren G. Harding in honor of the fight against breast cancer.
Photo
Neighbors | Tim Cleveland.Dr. Rashid Abdu spoke before the start of the fifth annual Breast Cancer Awareness Game at Boardman High School. The game raised money that was donated to the Joanie Abdu Comprehensive Breast Cancer Center, which was named in honor of Abdu's wife, who passed away from breast cancer.
By TIM CLEVELAND
In its three years of existence, the Joanie Abdu Comprehensive Breast Care Center has helped countless women fight against breast cancer.
The center has received the Guardian of Excellence Award from Press Ganey Associates Inc. in 2013 for achieving 99 percent patient satisfaction, as well as the 2014 Women’s Choice Award for being among America’s best breast centers.
So far, more than $1 million has been raised for the center, which is on the campus of St. Elizabeth Health Center. The center was started in November 2011 by Dr. Rashid Abdu, a general surgeon at the St. Elizabeth Hospital Wound Care Center. Dr. Abdu started the center in honor of his wife Joanie, who passed away from breast cancer in 1994.
For the fifth consecutive year, the Boardman girls soccer team played a Breast Cancer Awareness Game to help raise money for the center. This year’s game was on Oct. 1 against Warren G. Harding.
The game was a complete success for the Spartans, as the junior varsity defeated Harding 1-0, and the varsity won 5-1 to improve to 5-8-1 on the season.
Between the junior varsity and varsity games, Dr. Abdu spoke to the players and audience in praise of the effort that has gone into the game.
“I’m just going to thank the girls and appreciate their efforts over the past five years,” he said. “They’ve been absolutely wonderful. It’s very impressive to see young kids like that doing something for the community, not just for themselves. They’re helping other women and it’s just been absolutely inspirational.
“At their age, they don’t think much about breast cancer, but one of these days … one out of eight women will come down with it. They will be proud to go see the center and think ‘I helped build it.’”
The beginnings of the game started when the Boardman players wanted to do something to help the community.
“The girls were trying to figure out what they wanted to do as far as community service,” game organizer April Bryant said. “Somebody knew Dr. Abdu and they were talking about trying to raise money to have his center opened. They thought they’d play a breast cancer game and donate the funds. The year he was able to open his center he invited them to come and do the ribbon ceremony and it’s been five years in the making.”
“It was the Joanie Abdu Center that was coming up [to be built], and we decided that we would pull everything together that we had and start a cancer awareness game for the girls which snowballed into what we have today,” said Jim McCreary, who was the booster club president at the time. “We went down and did the first Panerathon and when we were there we met Dr. Abdu, and he’s been like a lifelong friend since then.”
Between the games, the Boardman players lined up, each wearing a sash with the name of someone who had either died from breast cancer or someone who has or does have it that the players were playing in honor of. Each had their name announced and was presented with a pink rose.
While the money from the gate wasn’t donated, several items were either sold or raffled off to raise money, such as popcorn, cookies shaped like the breast cancer symbol, coffee, hot cocoa and baskets.
Dr. Abdu said he was grateful for the players helping to raise money for the center every year.
“Every year they do it,” he said. “Talk about loyalty, consistency and dedication to community service at its finest. They represent the best of their generation.”