Sept. 15, 2010
NOTRE DAME, Ind. – The Notre Dame women’s basketball team will fan out across Michiana several times in the next month for events associated with its “Spirit of Giving” community outreach program, and fans are encouraged to “get in the Spirit” this fall, right along with the Fighting Irish.
The fun begins at 9:15 a.m. (ET) on Saturday (Sept. 18), when Notre Dame’s Hall of Fame head coach Muffet McGraw, senior guard Brittany Mallory (Baltimore, Md./McDonogh School) and junior guards Fraderica Miller (Atlanta, Ga./The Marist School) and Natalie Novosel (Lexington, Ky./Lexington Catholic) will participate in the Our Towne Truck Pull at the College Football Hall of Fame in South Bend. McGraw, Mallory, Miller and Novosel are slated to team with 16 other Fighting Irish fans to pull a semi truck (tractor-trailer) in a benefit for the Public Education Foundation of South Bend. The public invited to attend this event, take photos and receive autographs from members of the Fighting Irish women’s basketball team.
On Sept. 21, senior forward Becca Bruszewski (Valparaiso, Ind./Wheeler) and sophomore guard Skylar Diggins (South Bend, Ind./Washington) will headline a women’s basketball pep rally at the Coquillard Primary Center from 1-2 p.m. (ET). The Coquillard Center is located at 1245 North Sheridan Avenue in South Bend.
Two days later on Sept. 23, Diggins and Mallory will be the featured guests at another women’s basketball pep rally, this one to be held from 11:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m. (ET) at the Muessel Primary Center, located at 1021 Blaine Street in South Bend.
Both pep rallies — which will be closed to the general public — are designed to inspire young children on the importance of reading and completing school work. Each event is being held in cooperation with the Public Education Foundation.
Together, McGraw and Diggins also are serving as co-chairs of the Public Education Foundation’s fundraising drive to help implement the Wilson Reading System in four South Bend schools — Coquillard, Muessel, Perley and Marquette. For more information on the Public Education Foundation, please visit its web site at http://www.edfo.org.
The Notre Dame women’s basketball “Spirit of Giving” program began in the summer of 2009 and is an ongoing series of community outreach events that the Fighting Irish players, coaches and support staff participate in at various locations across Michiana.
In addition to its upcoming “Spirit of Giving” events, the Notre Dame women’s basketball team will have an additional announcement on Sept. 21 concerning a special community appearance that will be unlike any other in the program’s 34-year history. This appearance will take place from 6-8 p.m. (ET) on Oct. 13 — fans should mark their calendars now and look ahead to the Sept. 21 announcement for more details on this unique evening with the Fighting Irish.
For more information on the Notre Dame women’s basketball program, sign up to follow the Fighting Irish women’s basketball Twitter pages (www.twitter.com/ndwbbsid or www.twitter.com/notredamewbb) or register for the Irish ALERT text-messaging system through the sidebar on the women’s basketball page at UND.com.
— ND —