Hoops for Hope charity basketball game: GTM Sportswear to sponsor fourth consecutive year

Oct. 25, 2012 - PRLog -- MANHATTAN, Kan.– GTM Sportswear® will continue to support the fourth annual “Hoops for Hope” charity women’s basketball game, which funds cancer-preventive care, and is proud to provide uniforms, cheerleading apparel and tees for the event on Friday, Oct. 26.  

GTM has worked in partnership with the WEPAC (Wilmore, Englewood, Protection, Ashland and Coldwater) Alliance, Ashland Health Center and Comanche County Hospital for four years to provide the uniforms for the event.

"I almost get choked up when I talk about GTM,” Kim Hazen, president of WEPAC, said. “At one point, we were planning to make our own uniforms, but GTM has provided the basketball uniforms and more for the fourth year now. It makes me so proud to see the GTM logo on the shirts as people from our communities wear them all year long.”

Ninety percent of proceeds from the event, including ticket sales, apparel, concessions, raffles, contests, sponsorships, silent auction and more go to the WEPAC Alliance, a local foundation that pays for cancer-preventive care (digital mammograms, pap smears and colonoscopies) for women in five Kansas communities: Wilmore, Englewood, Protection, Ashland and Coldwater. Ten percent of the proceeds go to the Kay Yow Cancer Fund®. The WEPAC Alliance hopes to raise over $40,000 during this year’s event.

“To date, over $120,000 has been raised,” Benjamin Anderson, CEO of Ashland Health Center, said. “That money has been used to help pay for over 700 cancer-preventive screenings. In the last 18 months, those screenings have led to at least nine cancer diagnoses.”

“GTM is honored to be part of such an important event,” said Jana Thomas, multi-media advertising manager. “We are proud to support WEPAC and its effort to increase awareness for women’s health.”

Each team participating in the Hoops for Hope game will consist of three local high school and three recent alumni female basketball players and ten “celebrity” players and coaches including Olympian Marion Jones, Olympic coach Billie Moore and WNBA athlete Jackie Stiles.

Fans attending the game will purchase tickets along with special pink t-shirts for $30. The game will be in the South Central High School gymnasium in Coldwater, Kan. from 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 26.

To purchase tickets or learn more about Hoops for Hope or the WEPAC Alliance, visit www.wepacthehouse.org.

To see the basketball uniforms provided by GTM, visit www.gtmsportswear.com/HopeBasketball