Canterbury Gets “Pinked Out” for Pink Out

The Varsity Volleyball team’s Pink Out event for breast cancer awareness is annually one of Canterbury’s loudest and most boisterous events on campus—and this year was as passionate as ever. Now in its 14th year, Pink Out packed Pigott Arena with students, faculty, and staff all decked out in their finest pink and ready to cheer on their Saints.

The members of the volleyball team were particularly appreciative of the support. “As a senior, I felt very sentimental to be playing in my last Pink Out. Every year the team and I have felt an overwhelming amount of support from our community, which has always made the game so special,” said Co-Captain Morgan Lau ’24. “For the past two years, I have been involved in creating the Pink Out video, which always adds to the excitement for me, the team, and the community. It means a lot to look out into the stands and see so many friendly faces excited to be in Pigott for such an amazing game.”

And the game was indeed amazing! After winning the first two sets against visiting Cheshire Academy, the Saints dropped the next two before taking the fifth and deciding set, 15-13, sending happy fans pouring onto the court in celebration.

Head Coach EJ Soifersmith P ’27, ’27 was exceedingly proud not only of her team, but the entire Canterbury family for its collective efforts to make Pink Out so successful. “We made money from the bake sale and t-shirts, and Cora Brennan ’24 was at the desk taking donations as people walked in for the game. We sold out of the t-shirts in 45 minutes! We have never sold out like that,” EJ said. “Faculty, staff, students, the Dining Hall staff, and the volleyball team all contributed to the bake sale. The JV Volleyball team made a bunch of posters for us that we put around campus and also did the poster spelling out P-I-N-K O-U-T that hung above the student section. It was a true community effort.”

Those efforts paid off. The initiative raised more than $2,000 for the Susan G. Komen organization, the world’s largest nonprofit source of funding for the fight against breast cancer. Komen’s mission is “to save lives by meeting the most critical needs in our communities and investing in breakthrough research to prevent and cure breast cancer.” 

The Canterbury campus certainly came through with flying colors—one color in particular—for the 2023 Pink Out, held during Breast Cancer Awareness Month in October. “The support of the community year after year is unbelievable,” EJ shared. “Our one student section has to become two student sections because so many kids are there to support the team and the cause. It is a phenomenal feeling knowing how everybody gets behind it.”

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