Community Corner
Draining Threes to Beat This Disease
Basketball tournament at Schreiber High School helps raise money and awareness for the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation.
Sixty Schreiber High School students showed up in the gym after school on Wednesday ready to play some basketball. But this wasn't just a bunch of pick-up games for fun. This tournament had a purpose — to raise money and awareness in the fight against cystic fibrosis.
"We first learned about cystic fibrosis in Key Club and it intrigued us," said sophomore Kaitlyn Brown, who organized the basketball tournament with fellow 10th-grader Stephanie Reali. "So we just stuck with it and put together this big event."
After learning about cystic fibrosis, the girls joined the youth board of the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, which currently has 23 members across 22 Long Island schools, all helping to raise awareness about the disease. The sophomores then came up with the idea for the 12-team tournament with all the proceeds going to the school's Key Club, which will then cut a check to the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation.
"We both like basketball and decided it would be great to have this tournament and combine it with a bake sale," Reali said.
Cystic Fibrosis Foundation Special Events Coordinator Barbara Feltkamp said kids often come up with creative fundraisers like this. "The kids are allowed to choose the kind of fundraiser they want to have." Feltkamp said. "This basketball tournament is what they wanted to do and I think they've done a great job."
Cystic fibrosis, first recognized in the 1930s, is an inherited, life threatening disease that affects the lungs and digestive system. An estimated 30,000 Americans live with the disease and one in every 31 people are unknowingly carriers.
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Reali said they wanted to help raise as much money as possible to help those with the disease. "Everyone who wanted to play paid $10," Reali said. "We raised $600 before the event even started."
Those taking part in the event were more than happy to pay in order to play for such a good cause. "It's good to be a part of this," said Schreiber senior Emma Horowitz, who was the sole female member of the winning team along with Dan Bernstein, Jason Desimone, Scott Schwartz and Adam Epstein. "It was well worth the time and effort to help the cause."
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Reali said it took a lot of hard work and preparation to make sure that everything ran smoothly. "We spoke with the gym teachers, bought the food and prizes, left class early to set up, and got the word out there." the sophomore said. "We're doing it for a good cause. CF is a disease not a lot of people know about and we worked really hard on putting this together."
Varsity basketball coach Sean Dooley said he wanted to help out in whatever way he could and was the honorary referee for every game in the tournament. "Kaitlyn [Brown] asked me if I could help with the event, and it is always nice donating my time to these kids," Dooley said.
At the end of the tournament, the winners each received brand-new basketballs and ultimately $711 was raised to help cystic fibrosis awareness.
"It took a lot of stress to get here," Brown said. "But it was a fun, rewarding and worthwhile event."
