MAAC basketball championships and Jimmy Fund team up to fight cancer

SPRINGFIELD ? Basketball fans who buy tickets to the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference Championships will also be supporting a good cause.

The MAAC, which returns its men?s and women?s basketball championships to the MassMutual Center March 7-11, have partnered with The Jimmy Fund to support Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and the fight against cancer.

?The ticket includes a donation to The Jimmy Fund, it?s either one or two dollars depending on the price of the ticket and we do have tickets as low as $10,? MAAC commissioner Rich Ensor said Wednesday at a press conference held at the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. ?You can both support the charitable giving element tied into the ticket but also enjoy first-class Division I basketball here in Springfield.?

Hall of Fame vice president of finance and operations Don Senecal played a role in bringing the two organizations together.

Drawing from personal experience with Dana-Farber, having a close family member dealing with cancer and being blown away by the care and support offered up by Dana-Farber, Senecal decided to get more involved and bring his two worlds together.

?As a result of that, with the family experience, you didn?t have to sit back and prod me anymore, I said I?ve got to give back,? Senecal said. ?I?ve been on the (Western Massachusetts Jimmy Fund) council for a while and with my world of basketball and work with the MAAC through our partnership, I thought the Jimmy Fund could use something in basketball.

?The MAAC guys were outside the New England area but I brought them together to see if there was a symbiotic relationship and as a result there is an expansion of the market for the Jimmy Fund and for Rich it allows his student-athletes to participate,? Senecal said. ?It all sort of had the right chemistry to come together and I was happy to be a part of it.?

Besides the charitable contribution tied to the ticket price, the MAAC will be involved with the Jimmy Fund by running a ?text-to-give? campaign in which fans can text ?JIMMY? to 22122 which will donate $5 to the Jimmy Fund.

Also, MAAC student-athletes like Siena College volleyball player Elizabeth Ives and Fairfield rower Lorena Gullotta, who attended the press conference, will use a large Jimmy Fund canister at the MassMutual Center to collect donations during the championship.

?It?s personal now and I do believe in what the Jimmy Fund is doing,? Senecal said. ?They are going for a cure. These people are committed to a cure. This is an amazing organization and I truly believe this is something that can be cured and I?m committed to it.?

Source: http://www.masslive.com/sports/index.ssf/2013/02/maac_basketball_championships.html

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