Top fundraising Rockville Centre PAL lacrosse team learns from a pro
Major League Lacrosse player Billy Bitter trained a Rockville Centre 4th grade PAL lacrosse team on Aug. 27 after its members raised hundreds of dollars for the Jillian E. Daly Foundation.
The foundation was set up in the memory of Jillian Daly, a 24-year-old Rockville Centre resident and South Side High School graduate who died in October 2010 from an autoimmune condition called warm hemolytic anemia.
According to Jennifer Arleo, wife of the team’s coach Michael Arleo, the team raised $800 for the foundation, the most of any of the PAL lacrosse teams, and therefore won the practice session with Bitter, which took place at Turf Field in Oceanside. Daly was an accomplished athlete before she died, and captain of the swimming and gymnastics teams at Sacred Heart University, where she had graduated in 2009 with a Bachelor of Science in Nursing.
Bitter, who plays the attack position for the major league lacrosse Charlotte Hounds, agreed to conduct the lacrosse training session and pizza party for the team that was originally to be held at Skelos Sports Complex, though rain forced the lacrosse clinic inside. Bitter, a former resident of Manhasset, is a personal friend of the Daly family.
The foundation’s goal is to raise awareness for autoimmune diseases and support research for a cure. Since Daly’s death, it has held annual lacrosse games in conjunction with South Side High School.
