For Penn State Pink Zone, it was a red letter day.
On Feb. 27 this year, the annual Lady Lions basketball fundraiser game in support of breast cancer research generated a record $197,210 — more than double the 2010 total. Among the ninth-largest Lady Lion crowd ever were 352 breast cancer survivors, also a record for the 5-year effort.
Now, the charity hopes to grow more in a new form.
It’s working to become a nonprofit organization separate from the basketball program. An application for tax-exempt status is pending, and a search has begun for a paid part-time executive director. Eight people, including Centre Daily Times Publisher Susan Leath, have agreed to serve on a board of directors that may have as many as 15 members.
“We couldn’t continue to run Pink Zone out of the women’s basketball office,” said Coquese Washington, the Lady Lions head coach and a board member.
Jenn James, an assistant athletic director and another board member, said 2010’s success sparked the change.
That year, Penn State Pink Zone raised more than $88,000 — almost three times as much as it did in 2009. In large part, James said, the jump stemmed from a more concerted outreach campaign.
Penn State Pink Zone committed to the Lady Lion Resource Room in the Penn State Cancer Institute at Mount Nittany Medical Center, and began the Lady Lion Basketball Endowment for providing grants to breast cancer researchers.
The endowment, having reached $50,000, is now active. Other Pink Zone funds helped the Pennsylvania Breast Cancer Coalition buy a pink wrap for its outreach van.
“We took huge strides last year,” James said. “We really tried to create all sorts of town and gown combinations.”
Those showed the future’s potential to Penn State Pink Zone leaders — and demonstrated the need for outside fundraising expertise, other guidance and a more formal organization.
“When you do well, there’s a lot more work and important follow up that needs to be done,” said Mimi Barash Coppersmith, a board member and cancer survivor. “In addition to volunteers, we need to have somebody who keeps us on track.”
Other board members include Nan Crouter, the dean of Penn State’s College of Health and Human Development; Aileen Galley, a director at the cancer institute at Mount Nittany Medical Center; and Ned Book, a retired CEO.
Coppersmith said the executive director will come from the local population.
“We believe the eventual person has to be someone from the community who knows the community and has a passion for the cause and Lady Lion basketball,” Coppersmith said.
Being an official nonprofit will allow Penn State Pink Zone to pursue fundraising opportunities, such as the auction run for it by a national company this year, more easily, Coppersmith said. Like Washington, who said she’s “thrilled” by the growth, Coppersmith looks forward to the organization’s next chapter.
“We’ve got a good thing going,” she said. “Our real passion is to get it going even better.”
Chris Rosenblum can be reached at 231-4620.
