On February 27th, over 100 Philadelphia junior squash players and their families gathered at The Haverford School for the 5th “Squash Pediatric Cancer” fundraiser. The event, founded in 2005 by Alexandra van Arkel and co-chaired by Clare Kuensell, has been brought back after its successful run from ’05 to ’08 during which it raised $130,000 for The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.
The fundraiser featured an afternoon of clinics offered by local squash pros Shane Coleman, Scott Devoy, Carrie Hastings, Shannon Hazell, Demer Holleran, Gavin Jones, Damon Leedale-Brown, Guillermo Moronta, and Luis Sanchez who volunteered their time to help players with their games. Joe Russell took on Joe Millman, and Mike Bull battled against Brazilian pro Fabio Cechin in the two exhibition matches of the day. The highlight of the event was the raffle which boasted Harrow racquets, signed Phillies jerseys, Ray-Ban glasses, a Barbour coat, iPads and more. Coaches Dominic Hughes and Karen Kronemeyer were not able to attend but made significant contributions to the raffle prizes. Attendees of all ages tried their luck at the raffles, lunched, conversed, and helped support a great cause, to music provided by former Jamaican Olympic runner DJ Howard.
The event ended with a touching speech by the director of The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia’s Outpatient Oncology service, Sue Rheingold, who spoke about her patient with leukemia who had initially inspired this event in 2005. The event, which gave junior squash players and coaches in the area a wonderful opportunity to give back to the community, raised over $19,500 to be used by CHOP in their efforts to battle pediatric cancer. The fundraiser.
