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ApL Princeton WhistlePigs

Princeton Rays and Bluefield Orioles Announce Two-Game Series To Fight Breast Cancer

March 8, 2009 - Appalachian League (ApL)
Princeton WhistlePigs News Release


The Appalachian League professional baseball teams located in Bluefield, WV and Princeton, WV announced jointly on February 18, 2009 that two of their games versus each other in 2009 will be known as the "Mercer County Nights of Hope Baseball Series." The two games will be the anchor of several things the two teams will be doing together to raise money in the fight against breast cancer. This was all announced at a kickoff press conference in the main meeting room at Sleep Inn of Princeton. The back-to-back games involved will be when the Princeton Rays play at Bluefield's Bowen Field on the night of July 29 to be followed the next night when the Orioles visit Princeton's Hunnicutt Field. Starting times for both games are slated for 7:00 p.m.

Both teams during the course of the July 29 game will be wearing pink ballcaps featuring their team logos that will leave at the end of the game with fans who enter successful bids for each respective cap through a silent auction that will be conducted during the game. A new set of caps will be issued to both teams for the July 30 game and the process will be repeated. Each ballcap both nights will be autographed after each game by the player that wore it for the winning bidders.

The promotion came about as the result of a conversation between Bluefield Orioles' General Manager Mike Showe and Princeton Rays' General Manager Jim Holland. The two cross-county rival teams, located less than 15 miles apart, were both looking for a specific charity to partner with for the 2009 season.

"We are excited about this joint venture with the Orioles. Even though we both want to win on the field when we play each other, we are committed to uniting together in fighting an opponent such as breast cancer. Hopefully, this will be the beginning of more projects we can work together on in the future," said Holland.

"I don't think it took us much longer than a minute to decide that this would be the charity that we wanted to target for the 2009 season. By both teams working with each other along with our local American Cancer Society, we already have come up with a lot of ideas to enhance the games," added Showe.

Plans are already in the works to make many areas of both ballparks pink and there will also be breast cancer informational booths at each game as well as educational public address announcements concerning the disease throughout each game.

In addition, each team will have no less than one full page print advertisement in their respective program/yearbooks for the entire season dedicated to all local baseball fansthat make a tax deductible donation payable to "American Cancer Society" and mail to the local American Cancer Society facility, located at 1816 Jefferson Street; Bluefield, WV 24701. Donation check memos are requested to mention the "Mercer County Nights of Hope Baseball Series" and also mention the donors team of preference (Princeton or Bluefield) to ensure donors are properly recognized in the teams' program/yearbooks. These donations will be accepted until April 15, 2009. There will be three "club levels" of contributors listed: Gold Club (donations of $50.00 and above), Silver Club (donations of $25.00-$49.99), and Pink Club (donations of $10.00-$24.99). Credit card donations will also be accepted and can be done by contacting either ballclub or by phoning the ACS location in Bluefield direct.

The game promo will begin one hour prior to each game time when the gates open at each ballpark. The first 250 women age 40 and over each night will receive a special baseball bracelet that is designed in a "BE AWARE" of breast cancer theme. The bracelets will be made of a baseball-type leather with pink baseball stitching. These are being provided to both teams and the American Cancer Society by the official corporate sponsor of the series, the Wendy's Restaurants of the local Bluefield-Princeton area.

"We sure did not have to ask Wendy's twice to be involved, they jumped right in when they heard what was being planned," said Holland.

Following the February 18 press conference, Holland and Showe both agreed that this is only the beginning of the happenings for the two-day event with both anticipating that many more components will be added to the festivities as the date approaches. A breast cancer survivor from each city will be throwing out the ceremonial first pitch and it will definitely be a "think pink" event in each ballpark.

Coordinating the participation for the American Cancer Society will be local ACS Community Manager Sherry Ciccolini. She stated that professional baseball will provide a great venue to bring facts about breast cancer before a large group of people on both nights.

"These two special evenings with the Orioles and the Rays will bring more awareness to breast cancer and celebrate the lives of our local breast cancer survivors," commented Ciccolini.

Holland, Showe, and Ciccolini were later joined at the head table by breast cancer survivors Pat O'Neal of Bluefield and Tyann Evans of Princeton as well as Tina Church, a manager for Wendy's and "Wendy" herself. O'Neal and Evans both expressed their enthusiasm for the series along with the hopes that the promotion will be very successful and raise much needed additional revenues for cancer research.

According to the American Cancer Society (ACS), breast cancer is the second leading cause of cancer death in women, second only to lung cancer. The chance that breast cancer will be responsible for a woman's death is about 1 in 35 (about three percent). Women living in North America have the highest rate of breast cancer in the world. At this time, there are about 2.5 million breast cancer survivors in the United States.

Persons needing more information can contact the Princeton Rays at (304) 487-2000, the Bluefield Orioles at (276) 326-1326, or the local chapter of the American Cancer Society at (304) 327-8770.

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