Liberty Charter High School’s girls’ volleyball team is hosting its 12th annual Block Out Cancer matches at Joan MacQueen Middle School with High Tech High Chula Vista on Thursday, Oct. 12, with the junior varsity beginning at 4:30 p.m., followed by the varsity match at 5:30 p.m. All proceeds from the evening go to support a local family who has been battling breast cancer.
LCHS Athletic Director Linn Dunton said the reason the team does this is because the school has an educational-based athletics program at Liberty, and that means teaching these students life skills and character sports.
“Your goal is to prepare and plan to win, but your purpose is really the development of the kids and their character, giving them skills, they can take into life,” she said. “One of the skills is empathy. Really understanding what people are experiencing in life and being able to do something with that. Learn how to serve. Learn how to help other people.”
Dunton said it began with the school’s volleyball coach at that time, Rob Johnston. His wife Kari, a breast cancer survivor, participated in the Susan G. Komen Foundation three-day walk and was inspired by the camaraderie shown by all those battling cancer and those supporting them.
“They decided they wanted to do something to help girls understand that disease, and to be able to make a difference in the life of somebody,” she said. “They came up with the idea of Block out Cancer, because in volleyball, that term is called ‘to block.’ They started small. They sold socks, game admissions, snacks. At that time, they gave the money to the Susan G. Komen Foundation, honoring all the women there that had survived breast cancer, and to those who had fought and lost the battle.”
Dunton said the event kept growing over the years, deciding that they wanted to make the event more personal within the community. So, they dedicated the money to someone in the Liberty Charter’s community who was facing breast cancer.
“Last year, we raised $10,000 to help a family,” she said. “That money was raised through Sweets and Socks sales, with baked goods and pink Block out Cancer Socks that say LC. The Liberty Charter pink socks. The football team buys these and wears them in the month of October. We sell shirts, and at the event, the community pitched in to buy items for raffles, a silent auction. Everybody wears pink. We honor women there who are at the game.”
The other team also gets involved, said Dunton.
“High Tech High Chula Vista, who we are playing at the game, have also been part of our Block out Cancer before and have contributed financially to it,” she said. “Their Kids wear pink. It is really a great event. Not just our community, but the community in general to bring awareness to breast cancer.”
The girls love doing this event, said Dunton.
“I think part of the reason is because in the past, especially since we shifted to focusing on one who in our community, I think it has been so meaningful to them,” she said. “We have the person who is the recipient come, and their family comes to the event. Last year we had two moms we shared the proceeds with. It is a great thing. Our girls get to meet the moms, the women. They get to part of that night, and I think that makes it really special to them.”
Dunton said most people have experienced breast cancer through someone in their family or friends as breast cancer is so prevalent, and believes it is a cancer that has touched many lives. Dunton said that Liberty Charter wants to give back to the community in Alpine.
“We want to help. We want to offer clinics. We have offered to help with Joan MacQueen’s sports programs. To really grow their sports programs. Offer clinics to their kids with our coaches. Joan MacQueen, we use that field, and we host the high school flag-football league. There are 10 teams in that league, and my husband and I have been overseeing that league for the last 7-8 years.”
Dunton said Liberty Charter’s flag football team played the Monarch School at Joan MacQueen.
“They are the school for unhoused youth down in San Diego,” she said. “In creating that empathy, we have had that athletic director come and talk to our teams. About what life is like for a kid that is homeless, that is living on the streets, getting their education, meals, and life supplies through school. He kind of painted a picture of a day in the life of one of their football players.”
