HAMILTON (CIS) - The CIS Women’s Basketball Coaches Association proudly announced Sunday the organization had raised collectively over $100,000 for the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation in 2009-10 thanks to its third annual Shoot For The Cure initiative.

The impressive amount was unveiled at halftime of the 2010 CIS championship final at McMaster University, in Hamilton.

Western contributed $3,200 in support of the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation, when they faced off against Brock, defeating them in a thrilling game by a score of 76-75.

Pam Danis, President of the WBCA and head coach at the University of Manitoba, and U of M player Michele Hynes, this year’s recipient of the CIS Sylvia Sweeney award as the individual who best combines basketball, academics and community involvement, presented a cheque to Mrs. Cheryl Lewis-Thurab, Community Events Officer of the Ontario Chapter of the CBCF.

An additional $10,064.84 was amassed by schools that elected to donate their fundraised money to local organizations, bringing the 2009-10 Shoot For The Cure overall total to $104,715.80.

This marked the third edition of the initiative, launched in 2007-08 to raise awareness and money to fight the deadly disease. CIS women’s basketball programs had collected $50,320.87 for the CBCF two years ago and $81,512.96 last year, when an additional $11,000 was donated to local groups.

This season, 36 CIS schools participated by holding one or numerous fundraising games or activities over the course of the campaign.Among the most successful activities, Cape Breton amassed $15,300 during a very moving night that had a Survivor March at halftime, while Simon Fraser raised $10,000 at the “Breast Game Ever”.

“The Women’s Basketball Coaches Association set a goal in year three of the Shoot For The Cure initiative to raise over $100,000 for the fight against breast cancer. We are very excited that we were able to meet our goal,” said Jeff Speedy, project manager for the initiative and head coach at the University of New Brunswick. “We will be even more excited when no one loses a loved one to breast cancer. We hope Shoot For The Cure is helping raise breast cancer awareness and gets us closer to a cure.”

For more information on the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation or to make a donation, visit http://www.cbcf.org/ 

**With Files from CIS