
Wilfrid Laurier Universityโs Lettermen Club presented a $10,000 cheque to the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation on Friday, following a successful PowderPuff tournament earlier this year.
The 24 registered teams raised the money with registration fees and donations, Laurier Lettermen president Brent Vandenberg explained.
โThe tournament has consistently grown over the past five to ten years,โ he said, adding that the club didnโt have a goal for the fundraising, but raised significantly more than last yearโs donation of $7,000.
Former Lettermen president Andrew Barbati said the highest the club has raised was $11,000 in 2007.
The club, made up of male varsity athletes, does charity work around campus and within the community, including Kids Day โ which was also held on Friday โ hospital visits and โReading with the Hawksโ, but their pride and joy is the yearly PowderPuff tournament.
โItโs a Laurier invention. The PowderPuff tournament has always been here, thereโs a lot of schools now that are buying in and want to do their own,โ said Barbati. โWeโve done a lot of work sending rules and field sizes out to places from Concordia, last year I sent them out to Ohio, Mac, U of T has a tournament now. Itโs really cool to see something that is Laurier โฆ itโs something weโre really proud of.โ
According to Tanner Philp, the menโs football representative with Laurier Lettermen, the tournament is a way to get athletes and non-athletes alike together raising money for a good cause. With a steady increase in teams from last year, the trend is clearly catching on.
โItโs something that everyone looks forward to, thereโs a buzz around campus โฆ itโs just something that lifts up the whole campus,โ explained Barbati.
Cheryl Lewis-Thurab from Ontarioโs chapter of the CBCF received the cheque for the second year in a row, and was enthusiastic about the partnership with Lettermen. Over 600 research grants to come up with more innovative treatments for breast cancer have been funded by donations.
โPowderPuff is its own thing now, itโs not ours. If we were to say we werenโt doing it anymore weโd be chased down with pitchforks,โ Barbati concluded.
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