Kickin’ Cancer Raisies Hope For Cancer Patients

Rain didn’t keep Linn-Mar and Kennedy High Schools Girls Soccer Teams from playing a game with not just heart but hope.

Thursday night was the fifth-annual “Kickin’ Cancer” awareness game at Linn-Mar High School in Marion, Iowa. The teams donned jerseys in different shades of pink to support cancer awareness. Both schools also raised funds prior to the game with bake sales, bracelet and t-shirt sales, and a raffle. Money raised will go to Gems of Hope in Cedar Rapids. Gems of Hope Inc. is a nonprofit organization that offers gifts of jewelry mounted on inspirational cards to cancer patients. The patients are invited, along with family and friends, to attend workshops to create these works of art for others.

Both Kennedy, of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and Linn-Mar have lost students to cancer in the last three years and many players have walked through cancer with loved ones. 

Linn-Mar beat Kennedy in double-overtime with a 7-6 penalty-kick advantage.