East Meadow High School plays big for a cure

East Meadow High School’s annual Dig Pink event to raise money breast cancer research was dedicated in the memory of EMHS Class of ’02 alum and volleyball player Kerri Hubbard Naples.

Naples died last Nov. 11, at age 37, after a battle with metastatic breast cancer that had spread to her liver. The Dig Pink initiative for the Side-Out Foundation encourages high school volleyball teams nationwide to unite to benefit metastatic breast cancer research. 

The varsity and junior varsity volleyball teams from EMHS donned their pink Dig Pink shirts and bows on Oct. 14 while hundreds of fans and supporters came to watch them play an inter-squad exhibition game.

This is the first time the school honored someone’s memory at the annual fundraising game. Karen Bonanno, the health and physical education teacher at Woodland Middle School, and volleyball coach for EMHS and WMS, said honoring her former teammate makes the event extra special.

“Kerri was an amazing person,” Bonanno said. “We played volleyball together and we were both setters on the girls’ JV and Varsity volleyball teams at East Meadow High School.  She was a great teammate, she was always kind and hardworking, and she always had a smile on her face.”

Naples grew up in East Meadow, and moved to New Jersey in 2008, where she settled with her husband, Matthew and her two daughters, Abigail, now 7, and Lily, now 5. She was a math teacher and volleyball coach at New Dorp High School in Staten Island.

“I’m honored,” Joann Hubbard, Kerri’s mother said. “She was a beautiful individual, warm and loving. The outpouring of people that came to her funeral mass was overwhelming. All of her students that she taught years ago had said that she was an intricate part of their life.”

The money raised came from selling Dig Pink shirts, snack sales, 50/50 raffles, and community donations. The raffle prize gift baskets, created by the players and coaches, featured multiple gift cards and prizes donated by community members and business, Bonanno said. Donating to the cause were Pietro’s Pizzeria, Mille Grazie Pizzeria, Love and Honey Boutique, RC Dugans, Bagels Santa Fe, Burger City, Orange Theory, and many others.

Bonanno used the event to promote breast health, teaching the girls on both high school teams how to do breast self-exams by using a model that simulates what a lump or bump would feel like in breast tissue.

“I wanted the girls to have that hands-on experience of what a bump or lump could feel like,” she said. “Oftentimes, people just develop this cancer, and like any cancer, the earlier you find it, the earlier you can treat it and have a better outcome.”

Bonanno said that the girls were very receptive to the idea of honoring Naples’s memory with the game.

“It makes it very realistic for them,” she said. “Unfortunately, some of them also have friends and family members and relatives who have had breast cancer.”

Lily Finucane, an EMHS senior and co-captain of the girl’s varsity team, said that it was great to see her team expanding the event and have the younger girls involved.

“I’ve been doing this since I was a freshman and it’s really important that we’re doing it for somebody now,” Finucane said. “It’s not just to raise money for breast cancer, but there’s an actual person that we’re honoring and remembering.”

Hubbard said that she loves that the money raised is going to breast cancer research, especially since Naples was always helping others.

“She was always including people in things and helping people,” Hubbard said. “When we had (hurricane) Sandy, she was collecting clothing for people that had nothing left.

“She worried about everybody.”

If you want to support EMHS’s efforts in raising money in honor of Naples, visit TinyUrl.com/DigPinkEMHS.