For years, the UTRGV Athletics Department has partnered with Doctors Hospital at Renaissance to advocate for breast cancer awareness by hosting “BelieVe in a Cure,” a pink game.
The volleyball team will continue the tradition with a Western Athletic Conference home game at 7 p.m. Thursday against Grand Canyon University at the Fieldhouse.
This year is no exception for the Vaqueras as they encourage the university community to wear pink to show their support.
Redshirt junior defensive specialist Paulina Ramirez said creating awareness makes a difference to those around us.
“It’s important to know that we are all humans and it happens to people right next to us,” Ramirez said. “Especially in the [Rio Grande] Valley. … We’re a very community-oriented university. We have to be aware of these health issues to know how to treat people around us.”
She also shared her family’s experience overcoming breast cancer and what it means for her to see the community get involved.
“My mother-in-law survived breast cancer four years ago, so personally, it means a lot,” Ramirez said. “I saw her go through it, I saw my husband go through it and there’s many people who have [gone] through it. Wearing the jersey and then having a community that supports you and brings awareness to that means a lot personally, and it means a lot for everyone who goes through it.”
Junior outside hitter Jackie Kingsbury loves seeing the crowd in pink.
“We love it,” Kingsbury said. “We love to have a lot of the community, which maybe we don’t know them personally, but maybe they have family that had breast cancer [or] anyone in their family that survive breast cancer. So, for them to come out and we’re supporting the cause for them, makes us feel good.”
However, she believes more people could join the cause.
“Our student community does a good job of coming out, but I do think it could be better,” Kingsbury said. “Especially on an event like this, it shows more love to people who have survived or have gone through any experiences with breast cancer.”
With one loss and one win in conference, the Vaqueras are looking forward to the remaining of the season.
“I think that we’re learning from past games,” Kingsbury said. “We’re working on ourselves mentally as a team and, hopefully, that can lead us into a couple wins on the next couple of weeks.”
UTRGV will offer free admission to the game for students with proof of ID.
