March 19, 2014
VISIT THE STRIKEOUT CANCER MICROSITE FOR MORE INFORMATION!
NOTRE DAME, Ind. – The University of Notre Dame softball team has released the event schedule for its fourth annual Strikeout Cancer weekend, which will take place from April 25 until April 28 around the South Bend community.
The 2014 Strikeout Cancer celebration is set to begin on Friday, April 25 with the ever-popular trivia night, which will be held for the second straight year at The Brick, 1145 Northside Boulevard in South Bend. Check-in for the event is scheduled for 7 p.m. (ET), with trivia rounds set to begin at 7:30.
Participants are encouraged to bring their own food and snacks for “tailgate style” eating throughout the evening. Light snacks will be provided, and beer and wine will be for sale.
Teams of 10 are welcome to register for the cost of $200 per table. Individuals and local businesses are invited to sponsor a trivia round for $200 per round, or a trivia table for $100 per table.
Along with the Friday trivia night event, a silent auction, home run derby and various awareness promotions will coincide with Notre Dame’s Sunday doubleheader against Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) foe Maryland at Melissa Cook Stadium on April 27. The first game of the series is scheduled to begin at 1 p.m. (ET), with game two tentatively set for 3 p.m.
A new wrinkle to this season’s celebration involves the series finale on Monday, April 28. Notre Dame will make its second appearance of the season on ACC Monday, televised live on ESPNU, at 7 p.m. (ET) inside Melissa Cook Stadium against Maryland. The Irish plan to “Orange Out” the stadium, wearing their traditional Strikeout Cancer alternate uniform during the game.
The silent auction, which will begin during Sunday’s opening game, is set to continue through the duration of Monday’s contest.
Notre Dame softball began its Strikeout Cancer initiative in 2011 to support head coach Deanna Gumpf and her daughter, Tatum, who was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia during the summer of 2010.
During the inaugural Strikeout Cancer weekend in 2011, the Irish softball team raised more than $12,000 for cancer awareness. Notre Dame doubled that amount in 2012, with a total of $25,355.62 raised during the weekend-long celebration. The 2012 figure led the nation in funds raised among all softball programs participating in the National Fastpitch Coaches Association’s StrikeOut Cancer initiative.
Notre Dame softball continued to set the gold standard across the nation during the 2013 Strikeout Cancer weekend, bringing in more than $40,000 to directly aid pediatric cancer patients. The figure pushed the total amount raised to more than $75,000 over the three-year history of the event.
Donations from Strikeout Cancer have funded a number of projects since 2011, including paying lodging for a family to stay in Bloomington with a child receiving radiation therapy, a ‘wish day’ (shopping, spa day, flowers) and ‘wish trips’ for cancer patients, back-to-school backpacks filled with school supplies, birthday gift cards for all patients receiving cancer treatment at South Bend’s Memorial Children’s Hospital, and two play rooms added to the pediatric hematology and oncology clinic at Memorial Children’s Hospital.
For more information about Notre Dame softball’s Strikeout Cancer Trivia Night, contact director of operations John Whitty at 574-631-3750 (jwhitty@nd.edu). Event registration forms can be downloaded by scrolling over the ‘Schedule’ tab on the Irish softball page at UND.com.
For the latest news and updates on all things Notre Dame softball, follow the Irish @NDsoftball and @NDcoachGumpf on Twitter, and Like the team at Facebook.com/NDSoftball.
–ND–
— Tony Jones, Media Relations Assistant