McMaster to keynote 22nd annual athletics celebration

Wilton resident Molly McMaster, leader of a national education effort about colon cancer who also skated in the United Hockey League, will be the keynote speaker for the 22nd National Girls and Women in Sports Day at Skidmore College.

The annual celebration is scheduled Saturday, Feb. 9, at the College. Admission to all events is free and open to the public. Registration is required.

McMaster?s talk, to take place at 6 p.m. in Gannett Auditorium of Palamountain Hall, is one of a number of activities designed for athletes of all ages. The line-up includes the following:

? 10 a.m. ? Sports clinics for girls in grades 3-6. Sports include field hockey, lacrosse, soccer, softball, tennis, and volleyball, Skidmore Sports Center

? 1 p.m. ? lunch with Skidmore athletes for girls in grades 3-6. Other activities will include face painting, a chance to meet the Thoroughbred mascot, and free give-aways. Dance Gym

? 1 p.m. ? Women?s swimming and diving meet: Skidmore Women?s Invitational, with Vassar, William Smith, Cazenovia. Open to all ages

? 2 p.m. ? Women?s basketball game: Skidmore vs. St. Lawrence University. Open to all ages

? 4 p.m. ? Men?s basketball game: Skidmore vs. St. Lawrence. Open to all ages

? 6 p.m. ? Molly McMaster?s keynote speech, Gannett Auditorium, Palamountain Hall. Light refreshments will be served at 6 p.m. McMaster will begin her talk at 6:30 p.m.

The speech will chronicle McMaster?s journely through athletics and her fight against colon cancer. Now 31, McMaster learned she had stage II colon cancer on her 23rd birthday. A former radio personality, she is co-founder and president of the Colon Club, a national education and public-awareness effort to help people learn more about detecting and preventing colon cancer.

In that capacity, McMaster has inline skated across the country, carried the Olympic Torch, and told her story through appearances on hundreds of TV shows, the publication of numerous articles, and through speeches.

To further her efforts, McMaster created the Colossal Colon, a 40-foot-long, four-feet-tall, model of the human colon that since 2002 has travled the country educate people of all ages about colorectal cancer.

McMaster?s many awards include being named Adirondack Athlete of the Year, the 2002 Rotary Citizen of the Year, the 2003 Colon Cancer Alliance ?Voices? Award, and the 2003 Sloan Kettering Tavel Resnik Award for excellence in cancer education. She is currently writing a book about her experience with cancer.

NGWSD is celebrated annually in all 50 states with community-based events, award ceremonies, and activities honoring the achievements and encouraging paritciaption of girls and women in sports.

The event was launched in 1987 to remember Olympic volleyball player Flo Hyman for her athletic achievements and her work to assure equality for women?s sports. Since then, NGWSD has evolved into ad ay to acknowledge the past and recognize current sports achievements, the postivie influence of sports partitipation and the continuing struggle for equality and access for women in sport.

All events at Skidmore on Feb. 9 are free and open to the public. Registration is required and may be done online.

For further information, please call Kelly Schwarz, Skidmore women?s softball coach, at 518-580-5394.