AHS boys basketball team, booster club raise $2,500 for Institute’s breast cancer research

Hoops for Hope check presentation 2013

Dr. Edward Hinchcliffe, a section leader at The Hormel Institute, accepts a check donation Tuesday afternoon from the Austin High School boys basketball team and its booster club for $2,500 to support The Hormel Institute's world-renowned breast cancer research in Austin.

Austin High School’s boys basketball team and its booster club donated $2,500 today to The Hormel Institute’s world-renowned breast cancer research, making it the first major donation of Austin’s 2nd annual “Paint the Town Pink” initiative that officially starts Friday, Feb. 1.

Dr. Edward Hinchcliffe, who leads the Cellular Dynamics research section at The Hormel Institute, accepted the donation this afternoon in Packer Gym at Austin High and thanked the basketball team’s players, coaches and members of the AHS Fast Break Boys Booster Club. Money raised by the event will go 100 percent to The Hormel Institute’s cutting-edge breast cancer research in Austin.

The team’s first “Hoops for Hope – Shooting for a Cure” game on Jan. 17 – when it defeated Rochester John Marshall, 80-77, in front of a packed crowd –served as an early kickoff event for this year’s “Paint the Town Pink” citywide initiative to raise awareness and support for The Hormel Institute’s breast cancer research. “Paint the Town Pink” officially runs from Feb. 1-10.

The AHS Fast Break Boys Booster Club sponsored the cancer awareness evening with Austin Packers Head Coach Kris Fadness and Austin High Activities Director Lisa Quednow-Bickler. Booster Club member Mike Olmsted was the lead organizer of the event.

For more information on “Paint the Town Pink” events, contact the Austin Convention & Visitors Bureau at 437-4563 or go online to www.austincvb.com.

With one of the top scientific publishing records, The Hormel Institute, University of Minnesota – Mayo Clinic, is a world-renowned cancer research center conducting research focused on discoveries leading to the prevention and control of cancer. Its scientists are focused on investigating how cancer works and what nontoxic, natural compounds can be used to prevent and control cancer.

The BioScience Triangle growing the collaborative partnership between the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities, Mayo Clinic-Rochester and The Hormel Institute-Austin is continuing to expand, with plans for a major expansion in the coming year at the Institute to add more research labs and better space for its International Center of Research Technology.