Pink is not normally one of Red Bank’s school colors, but it will be Monday night when the basketball teams host neighboring school Baylor on Hoops for Hope night. The girls’ game starts at 7 p.m. The boys play at 8:30.
The project is an effort to raise money for the MaryEllen Locher Foundation scholarship fund, named for the local TV news anchor who succumbed to cancer in June 2005. The fund is set up to help children who have lost a parent to breast cancer and children of breast cancer survivors.
Red Bank’s girls will wear specially made pink uniforms for the occasion. The boys will have stickers of breast cancer support ribbons on their uniforms.
The girls’ game will be played with a pink basketball. The Lady Lions and Lady Red Raiders all will put their signatures on two other pink basketballs. Each program will keep one to commemorate the event.
Pink T-shirts with a logo designed by a Baylor art student, which have already been on sale at the schools, will be available at the door for $10. That also will cover admission to the game. Those not wishing to buy a T-shirt can attend for $5.
“The idea is to get as many people wearing pink at the game as possible,” Red Bank girls’ coach Steve Redman said.
There will be a sports memorabilia silent auction on site with all proceeds from that and T-shirt sales going to the locally based charity. Redman stepped outside of his element — “I’m not a salesman. I’m just a history teacher,” he said — and sold advertising for the programs that will be handed out at the game. The money from the ad sales will be donated, too.
The Chattanooga Children’s Choir is scheduled to sing the national anthem before the girls’ game, and the Karen Horton School of Dance will perform at halftime. Baylor’s cheerleaders have a routine planned for halftime of the boys’ game.
Redman said plans for the event started four or five months ago. He’s periodically been in contact with MaryEllen Locher Foundation executive director Jan Moses. He said he wanted to make sure contributions were being used locally, and although the local charity works nationally, a scholarship will be awarded Monday to a local student. The amount has not been determined yet.
Redman said it also mattered to have Baylor as the opponent for the special game.
“We’re both on the same side of town,” Redman said. “We’ve got a good relationship with Baylor. They’re private. We’re public. There’s all the different dimensions. When they agreed to do it, that got the ball rolling right there.”
The schools plan to make this an annual event and alternate hosting it each season. The format next year at Baylor will change to two girls’ games instead, ideally on a weekend. Redman said Signal Mountain has agreed to play Red Bank. The Lady Raiders’ opponent has not been confirmed.
Lady Lions point guard Breonna Armstrong can apply for the scholarship fund next year. She’s the child of a breast cancer survivor.