The Sachem Central School District and The Maurer Foundation teamed up for the second annual Sachem Heritage Day/Breast Cancer Fundraiser on Saturday at Sachem High School East.
Using girls basketball as a catalyst, Sachem gathered its middle school girls basketball programs together to play each other in a “heritage” game, while members of the Sachem family were able to participate in raffles to raise money for breast health education, and mingle in the halls to learn more about the foundation.
“We want to thank Sachem,” said Debbie Hecht, Executive Director of The Maurer Foundation. “This is a terrific event. We’re so happy to see the support for The Maurer Foundation and the spirit here is just tremendous. It pulls so much together and they’ve done so much work with us. They are supporting a wonderful cause, which is to support breast health education and our mission is to save lives through breast health education.”
Sachem’s connection with The Maurer Foundation is directly related to longtime former educator and hall of fame coach Risa Zander, who had Dr. Virginia Maurer as a doctor during her experience with breast cancer.
Members of the Sachem East football team manned the raffle item tables, and students from Sachem’s cosmetology program were offering pink hair extensions for a donation. “We Are Sachem” pink shirts were also for sale in honor of the fight against breast cancer.
“It’s a great day for the community to come together and raise money in support of a great cause,” said Sachem Athletic Director Pete Blieberg.
About the Maurer Foundation: Responding to the need in her own practice, breast surgeon Dr. Virginia Maurer first made breast health education programs available to her patients and their families. The success of these programs encouraged her to reach out to the general public, but particularly to adolescent women through high school breast health programs. Dr. Maurer believes that the choices we make early in life can affect our future breast health. Since 1995, The Maurer Foundation has been serving the community as a separate not-for-profit organization, for which Dr. Maurer actively participates as Founder, motivator and an inspiration.
CLICK HERE to learn more about the Maurer Foundation
RELATED: PHOTOS: See more images from the event
(Official release of Sachem Central School District)