Plumbers & Pipefitters 562, Heat & Frost Insulators 1 face off in charity soccer game

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Raise $15,385 to benefit Breast HealthCare Center at Missouri Baptist Medical Center

By TIM ROWDEN
Managing Editor

PAST AND CURRENT PLAYERS from Local 562 (left, with current players in red and past players in blue) and Heat & Frost Insulators and Allied Trades Local 1 (right) pose for team photos before the game.

Creve Coeur, MO – Plumbers & Pipefitters Local 562 and Heat & Frost Insulators Local 1 faced off in a charity soccer game Oct. 8  raising nearly $16,000 for to benefit Breast HealthCare Center (BHCC) at Missouri Baptist Medical Center in recognition of Breast Cancer Awareness Month.

“Today was a great day for soccer, but also to give back!” said Local 562 Business Manager John O’Mara.

Local 562 won the game 2-1 and presented a check for $15,385 to the Missouri Baptist Healthcare Foundation.

U.S. SENATE CANDIDATE Trudy Busch Valentine (D) visits with a Local 562 member (left) and Local 562 Assistant Business Manager Brian Nichols (at right) before the game. – Local 562 photos

The event marked the triumphant return of Local 562’s charity soccer event.

“It was a long time coming to bring back our charity soccer game,” O’Mara said. “We’re going back 10 years ago since we’ve done it. We used to do this a lot 25 years ago, but then it kind of fell off because the unions didn’t seem to have as many soccer guys. Now it’s coming back.

“It was really a competitive, fun game to see,” he said. “Both sides had some really talented soccer guys out there playing.”

Tracy Nykin, oncology program manager at Missouri Baptist Medical Center, wrote a note to Local 562 thanking them for the charity soccer tournament donation.

DISPLAYING THE CHECK for $15,385 raised at the charity soccer game between Plumbers & Pipefitters Local 562 and Heat & Frost Insulators Local 1 are (from left) Cancer survivor Mary Rone, Missouri Baptist Foundation Gift Officer Deborah Kersting, Local 1 Business Manager Gary Payeur, Missouri Baptist Oncology Program Manager Tracy Nykin, Local 562 Business Manager/Secretary-Treasurer John O’Mara, Missouri Baptists’ Stephanie Schnable, and Local 562 Health Clinic Nurse and Manager Kate Bushman. – Local 562 photo

“We are so honored and appreciative to be the beneficiary of your charity soccer game this weekend,” Nykin wrote. “Your donation will be used to help fund the treatment of underserved patients, as well as toward equipment that will allow the team to better serve our patients.”

Among its services, BHCC:

  • Performs screening and diagnostic mammograms, bone density screenings, and breast biopsies.
  • Provides a Risk Team to help patients to determine their risk of hereditary breast or ovarian cancers, and genetic counselors can talk through options.
  • Provides a traveling mammography van to reach patients in locations that are underserved or otherwise do not have convenient mammography options.

O’Mara also thanked the Creve Coeur Park Soccer Complex in St. Louis County for its hospitality, Local 562 volunteers who made it happen and STL Shirt Co. for the donation of team shirts.

“The weather was perfect and the field was really good,” O’Mara said. “A lot of families came out to watch and that was the big thing. It was a really fun family atmosphere and that’s what we wanted.”

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