School color for the day: Pink

Warren's Blue Devils go out all to help the fight against breast cancer

For one night, school colors didn't matter.

Wednesday night in Gurnee, the only color that was important at the prep girls volleyball match between host Warren High and visiting Grant was pink.

This was Volley for the Cure night at Warren, which raised money for breast- cancer awareness through the nationally-recognized Susan G. Konen For The Cure Foundation.

Many area schools are hosting a "Think Pink" event and Wednesday night it was the Blue Devils' turn.

The theme of the night, which was on Warren's special pink/white camouflage uniforms was "Digging for a Cure," and the lobby outside the gym was also decorated in pink.

Last year, the Blue Devils raised about $2,000 from this event. This year, thanks in part to the efforts of parents, who were led by Rhonda Walz -- mother of Warren High player Rachel Walz -- the event became much bigger.

Walz, along with friend Heidi May, a breast-cancer survivor, wanted to find ways to help raise more money, and found it through corporate sponsorship from Banana Boat, Gillete and Energizer, which donated items for a raffle.

"Everyone seems to know someone close to them who has been effected by this cancer," said Walz. "We just wanted to do as much as we could to raise as much money as we could. Knowing someone like Heidi is an inspiration to want to help anyway you can."

The members of Warren's volleyball team were very involved in the event as well, selling buttons, pink T-shirts and making special gift baskets to raffle off.

"It's really exciting being a part of this," said Walz. "It's better than I could have ever hoped for."

Warren coach Julie Fillipo was also happy with this year's effort.

"We learned a lot from doing it last year," said Fillipo. "My college roommate died of breast cancer and I know some other friends and family that have been diagnosed so it's a cause close to my heart."

Warren has played a couple of teams that already had their event, the last being at Libertyville and took ideas from them to help their event be as successful as it could be.

"Last year, it wasn't as big," said the senior captain. "We took some ideas from other schools and added our own twist, but it's OK because it's all for the same cause.

"The kids at school have been really supportive of what we're trying to do and it's exciting to see how it all came together. I just hope we raise a lot of money."

As for the match, as things turned out, it was the Grant team -- which also wore pink T-shirts -- that went home happiest.

The Bulldogs won the match 25-21, 25-15, 27-25. In the third game, Warren actually held a commanding 23-15 lead, only to see the Bulldogs come all the way back to win. PREP GIRLS VOLLEYBALL