Ten-thousand dollars, 160 teams, eight volleyball courts and one big cause.
On Saturday, Pink Bandana hosted its 15th annual Beat Breast Cancer Mud Volleyball Tournament at the Prague Ballpark. Pink Bandana is a nonprofit that strives to raise awareness and support for women battling breast cancer, specifically those who are under the age of 40 in Nebraska.
Each year, the tournament raises money for a breast cancer patient. This year, $10,000 was given to Kelsey Schiltz and her family.
“It means more truly than anybody can ever know,†Schiltz said. “It means so much to me and my family. It’s such a blessing and we are just so grateful and thankful for being chosen.â€
Schiltz, a 32-year-old from Lincoln, was diagnosed in November of 2021 with triple-positive breast cancer and finished chemo this May.
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“It’s been a long journey and it means so much to be recognized,†Schiltz said.
Although they didn't participate in the volleyball games, she brought her husband and two daughters out for the first time and are already planning their team for next year.
Last year’s recipient, Chantel Brown, returned to the event this year to participate with her team. Brown was diagnosed in March 2020 right after the COVID-19 pandemic began, she was furloughed from work and her son was sent home for remote schooling.
“This is just an amazing organization,†Brown said. “It’s different than any other organization we have in Nebraska where you can just lay back and have fun with your friends.â€
Brown said that she is still being monitored for cancer, but she is doing well. She traveled from Omaha with some friends with shirts reading, “Milk’s Breast Friends,†created from her nickname, “Milkshake.†Her team had one of the first games of the day and unfortunately lost.
“We just kind of showed up and hoped for the best,†Brown said. “It’s kind of like a tailgating experience where we play volleyball.â€
Each of the eight volleyball courts are lined with a tarp and filled with sand and knee-deep water. Each pit has its own bracket that narrows down throughout the day in a triple-elimination until a final eight remain for the championship. The triple-elimination is new this year to allow each team to play a minimum of three games throughout the day.
President and Co-Founder Jeremy Stanislav founded the event with his brother after attending a similar event in Adams.
“For me, it started out just wanting to have a fun event, but then we started to meet these women who had become friends,†Stanislav said. “I just started really wanting to help women with breast cancer, especially the ones under 40.â€
Their first event took place in 2008 in Abie, Neb. where $1,900 was raised for a 23-year-old. Since then, the board has opened applications each October for women with breast cancer to apply. Stanislav said they try to find the person that they can help the most financially.
“It’s really all about the cause, that’s why we do it,†Stanislav said.
This year, the teams were capped at 160 with an entry cost of $180 per team. The money is used for the recipient as well as for their Pink Bandana Scholarship fund. A $4,000 scholarship is given to a Nebraska senior who has battled breast cancer or is the child of someone who has battled breast cancer within the past five years.
In the thousands of participants, everyone had their own reasons for coming to support the cause whether it’s their history with cancer, knowing a cancer patient or just enjoying a fun day of philanthropy.
Allison Brooks came for her third year with shirts reading “Here for Beers and Boobs.â€
“We have some friends who lost their sister to breast cancer and they donated, so we come out here and hang out with them,†Brooks said.
Brooks said it was a good cause and likes that the donations are given directly to a recipient rather than a foundation so they can see where the money is going. In 2019, her team made it all the way to the final eight.
“We come to drink, have fun and support breast cancer,†Brooks said.
Eric Capron and his wife Mary have a long history at the mud volleyball tournament and even got engaged at the event in 2016. Eric has been coming since the second year it was founded and this year, they decided to bring their kids to keep the tradition going for the next generation.
“All of our kids lost both of their grandmas last year and one was because of breast cancer,†Eric said. “It’s close to the heart for everybody involved.â€
Evan Anderson from Lincoln also lost a grandma to cancer. He said she passed away from bone cancer before he was born.
“Cancer in general is a terrible thing,†Anderson said. “I’d like to help out as much as I possibly can.â€
Anderson plays sand volleyball regularly with friends and attended the mud volleyball tournament for his first time this year. He said it certainly won’t be his last time.
In addition to all the supporters at the event, some tournament participants are facing their own battle with cancer, including Kate Larson from Lincoln who was diagnosed last June with breast cancer and is now in remission.
“There’s still a long journey ahead, but I’m in a much better place than where I started,†Larson said. “I have my moments that are down, but you gotta keep moving forward, you can’t do anything else. I have two kids and I have to live for them.â€
Larson has attended several times as a spectator to support the cause and decided it was finally time to join in on the fun with her husband after her diagnosis.
“I couldn’t play last year because I had some back-to-back surgeries,†Larson said. “This just brings a whole new meaning for me, coming here and being a part of this.â€