Play4TheCure game a life-changing experience for NK's Stuart

On the surface, it was simply a way to fulfill her senior project requirement. But Cassie-Raye Stuart says the Play4TheCure field hockey game that she organized last month turned into so much more, calling it a life-changing experience.

Courtesy/Cassie-Raye Stuart

The game - held on a Sunny October Sunday at Moses Brown between the Quakers and East Greenwich High School - generated about $600, which Stuart will donate to the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation.

Courtesy/Cassie-Raye Stuart

Stuart also collected more than 500 pink lids for Yoplait's Save Lids to Save Lives program, in which Yoplait donates 10 cents for every lid to the Komen Foundation.

"I can't even begin to explain to you what this has done in my life," said the North Kingstown senior, who plans to hold future Play4TheCure Games. "It's so easy to get caught up in the day to day things that we will never remember in a couple of years, but this is something that I will take with me forever."

Courtesy/Cassie-Raye Stuart
North Kingstown field hockey team

Stuart dedicated the game to the memory of her mother's close friend, Barbara DeFrancisco, who lost her battle with breast cancer seven years ago. When DeFrancisco's teenage daughter, Anna, found out about the game, she flew in from North Carolina on just three days notice.

Providence Journal/Carolyn Thornton
From L-R: Anna DeFrancisco, Bonnie Higgins and her daughter Cassie-Raye Stuart

"It's actually (been) just this year I've been able to talk about it more really," said Anna, who was 10 when her mother died. "I've started writing about it, and it's just like now that I'm starting to be able to deal with it because I was really young. So this is good. And that's part of it, too, I feel like (coming to the game) is something I needed to do for me. . . . Whenever I heard about it, I just started crying because it made me feel so good that people would do that kind of thing. It's so good to see because you see so many bad things."

DeFrancisco says she is now considering organizing a similar benefit basketball game at her high school in Gainesboro.

Stuart will continue collecting lids through December. Those interested in joining her "team" should log on to http://yoplait.com, click on the Save Lids to Save Lives link and search for Cassie-Raye's Crew under the list of Rhode Island teams.

Click here to listen to Cassie-Raye Stuart talk about her senior project: Carolyn Thornton interviews Cassie-Raye Stuart_2008_10_26.wav

Click here to listen to Anna DeFrancisco talk about what the Play4TheCure game meant to her and how she has been dealing with the loss of her mother: Carolyn Thornton interviews Anna DeFrancisco_2008_10_26.wav

Click here to listen to Bonnie Higgins talk about what her daughter, Cassie-Raye, accomplished through the Play4TheCure game: Carolyn Thornton interviews Bonnie Higgins_2008_10_26.wav

Posted by Carolyn Thornton  at 12:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)