When Nick Silacci’s best friend, Jared Denny, lost his mother to breast cancer, Nick asked his stepmom if she could help him with an important project. An avid sports fan, he’d seen NBA players wear pink socks to promote breast cancer awareness and he wanted to bring the concept to the varsity and junior varsity basketball teams he and Jared played for at Shore Country Day School. With the support of Nick’s stepmom, their parents and coach, David Lund, Nick and Jared approached all of their team members to gain support for the effort. Even through challenges and teasing, they were adamant about paying tribute to Jared’s mom and raising awareness about breast cancer screening among the moms and women attending their basketball games.
The team even inspired Nick’s stepmom to get her first screening done. She says, “After going to a game and seeing all the socks, and knowing what Jared and Nick did to get their teams on board, I thought, ‘I’d better get a mammogram!’ A week before Christmas, I had my first mammogram and it showed a troubling spot. Two weeks later I was in the operating room for an invasive biopsy and a week later, I was relieved to learn I did not have [a malignancy], but that I should be vigilant with my annual screenings. Even though I am fine, I am still so grateful to the pink socks campaign because it got me focused on my own health care, and I hope and believe it helped other women as well.”
Motivated by their first foray into public advocacy for breast cancer awareness, Nick and Jared remain involved with various cancer fundraisers and events in their communities. The boys have volunteered at charity events, swam laps to support pediatric cancer research, played golf at memorial tournaments, and taped hockey sticks with pink tape. Even at their new high schools, these young men continue to walk-the-walk, on and off the court.
Learn more about the team in the video below, an excerpt from “Youth Empowerment & Philanthropy,” which was shown at the 2014 the one hundred. You can also watch the full video or see all of the evening’s videos.
