Sports organizations raise money for a cure

Every single Lynbrook sports organization gathered together for the first time at Greis Park to raise money for breast cancer awareness.

Brian Lanzello, head of the Lynbrook Titans football and cheer teams organized the event—Lynbrook Sports for a Cure—on Saturday, October 8. He talked to the head of each organization such as the football, cheer, baseball, lacrosse, soccer, kickline, hockey, basketball, and wrestling teams to get them all involved in this fundraiser. Participants of this event received t-shirts and were allowed to partake in any of the activities after paying the admission fee of $20.

This event was advertised as a “field day style competition” as kids of all ages were competing against each other in a variety of athletic challenges. With kids learning how to improve their soccer, baseball, football, basketball, and running forms, the fundraiser not only spread awareness about a deadly disease, but it also promoted staying active. Lanzello had every organization head simultaneously “send out emails” asking community members if they would like to participate in this year’s breast cancer research fundraiser.

“Everybody sat down for a meeting and everybody seemed to be on board,” Lanzello said. “It all just panned out.” All of these organizations came together in hopes to raise much more money than they would with having only one or two organizations running a breast cancer fundraiser.

“For the Titans football and cheer alone, I think we’re up to almost 12 thousand dollars and that’s just one organization,” Sam Riccobono, cheer director of the Lynbrook Titans said.

According to the event’s donation page, this fundraiser has already amassed over $27,000 with a goal of raising $100,000. All of the proceeds will go directly to the Breast Cancer Foundation. Donations are continuing to trickle in days after the event on give.bcrf.org.

“We’re hoping to raise as much money as we can because there’s so many women and men who are affected by this,” Riccobono said. “So we want to also just bring awareness like early detection and making sure we’re getting mammograms.”

Ricocbono wears pink during October for Breast Cancer Awareness Month, but felt like she needed to do more to raise awareness. She said, “for us this was just an extension of wearing pink and we’re really, really excited to be here.”

With a DJ playing music, kids competing in sports activities, and parents purchasing raffles, community members got involved to do their part in raising awareness for breast cancer.