By Jeremy McDonald

jeremymcdonald73@gmail.com

DALLAS, Ore.—  The sand courts have been a huge blessing for the Dallas Volleyball program this Summer and Fall.  Helping to keep the kids active and give them an huge opportunity to improve their skills on the Volleyball court at this point of the game.

“They would have made an impact any year but especially with Covid and season getting pushed back it’s been so great for us to have those community funded courts as an option to stay active, see the kids and get better at volleyball,” said Dragon Volleyball Head Coach Kayce Lilley.  “We’re so thankful to the local businesses who donated time and money to make it happen for us.”

Every year, every October, the Dallas program would host their annual Pink-Out match to honor those affected by Breast Cancer.  October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month and doing their Pink-Out Match was something the Dragon Volleyball Program holds dearly.

With the pandemic pushing their season back to the March-April time-slot, an idea came out of it with the help of those same sand courts that they built recently to keep the tradition of their October event going.

“We always love doing our annual pink out match! Many of us, the girls and us as coaches, have people we are close with who have battled or been impacted by breast cancer and this event is always special for our program,” said Lilley.

“With our season being pushed back, we still really wanted to honor and celebrate these women during breast cancer awareness month. This Halloween Quads tournament is our best shot at a makeshift pink out fundraiser.”

All the money raised will be donated to the Salem Health Women’s Imaging Center, the program’s breast cancer organization of choice.  Each team are doing their own fundraising to cover the fifty-dollar registration fee.

Outside donations, additional donations are more than welcome said Lilley.

“If people are wanting to contribute, they can reach out to any of the girls or reach out to me and I can connect them to a team,” said Lilley.  “The team who raises the most money will get a prize for their efforts! We will also have a donation box set up at the tournament tent/table for any day of donations.”

12 teams are currently signed up with teams starting play at 9am and running until 4pm on Halloween, October 31, depending on how the day go and how the weather is looking. 

They will be following the Oregon Health Associations guidelines of outdoor events, capping people at 250 people and the program ask fans to socially distance and wear mask when it isn’t possible to socially distance.