Ever since the COVID-19 pandemic first came into our lives a year and a half ago, Indian Creek volleyball player Emilee Scott had searching for a way to bring some much-needed cheer to her community.
Last fall, she found her answer.
Scott came across Dig Pink, a nationwide initiative that funds metastatic breast cancer research and treatments through the Virginia-based Side-Out Foundation, and decided she wanted to put together an event at Indian Creek.
That desire will become a reality on Tuesday, when the Braves’ home match against West Vigo will double as a Dig Pink event, complete with stat pledges, a bake sale, a silent auction raffle and sales of t-shirts, bracelets and ribbons.
Scott has been selling money and raising funds for weeks leading up to the night of the match, and between those efforts and her page on the Side-Out Foundation website, she has already raised $2,864 after expenses as of Saturday afternoon, well past her original goal of $1,500.
“I didn’t know what to expect,” she said.
On the heels of such success, Scott says she is looking to double her donations during Tuesday’s event and push her total past $5,000.
“I’ve always wanted to do something in our community that’s positive, especially after COVID,” said Scott, whose interest in fighting breast cancer was heightened when her doubles partner during tennis season, Olivia Perry, found out her mother was diagnosed with it.
Indian Creek coach Andi Ferris — who has now seen her mother-in-law, a cousin and a close friend all go through breast cancer surgery — wasn’t at all surprised to see Scott take the lead on such an ambitious project.
For all of Scott’s impact on the volleyball court — she ranks among the Braves’ leaders in digs and serve receiving — she’s making even more of an impression off of it.
“She just has a golden heart,” Ferris said of the senior, “and just to see her really step up and do something like this for our community and for the people who are suffering with breast cancer, I think it’s amazing. She’s just a super special kid.”
In part because of how successful her Dig Pink effort has been this fall, Scott hopes that the event can become an annual occurrence at Indian Creek; she says that junior Savannah Hall has expressed an interest in taking the ball and running with it next year.
Thanks to Scott, the project already has plenty of momentum.
“I told her I’d help however, but honestly, Emilee has just spearheaded everything and taken care of it,” Ferris said.
“Emilee just always wants to help people.”
