Ashley Swip has a personal stake in the fight against cancer, and she's using tennis rackets as a weapon.
Swip, the second-year head coach for the Granite City girls tennis team, was the organizer of the "Ace for a Cure" fund-raising event at the Warriors' dual match against visiting Edwardsville on Sept. 7. Swip came up with the idea after her brother, Guy Gifford of Collinsville, died of metastatic melanoma cancer at age 28 on Nov. 2, 2010.
"I wanted to do a benefit for tennis and put all the money toward skin cancer (research)," Swip said. "The girls are outside all the time, and a lot of them never wear sunscreen, so we thought we could have some prevention and education about wearing sunblock.
"All the money that we raise today is going to Siteman Cancer Center and their skin cancer division and to a group called Our M.O.M. Inc., which deals with education, awareness and prevention of skin cancer."
Both teams wore T-shirts with "Ace for a Cure" on the front and "A Cure is Just an Ace Away" on the back.
"My brother was really big into Bob Marley and tie-dye and reggae (music), so I wanted to do something with a tie-dye theme," Swip said.
"We did red tie-dye shirts for Granite City since our school color is red and orange shirts for Edwardsville because their school color is orange.
"Both schools sold the T-shirts and the profits are going to both organizations. We're also selling ribbons, and all of the money from concessions is being donated as well.
"The girls are really excited to be doing something for the community. Instead of being rivals, they want to show they can do this together."
Getting Edwardsville involved was an easy decision because Tigers coach Dave Lipe is from Granite City.
"Ashley has provided the leadership on this, and we were eager participants," Lipe said. "When she first contacted me about this, I didn't have to think twice.
"She mentioned her brother's story and the fact that she wanted to make this a special event. We feel honored that she chose us to be here today. We've got 26 girls wearing orange ‘Ace for the Cure' shirts."
A 1984 Granite City graduate, Lipe played for the school's last sectional championship team.
"I played with some great players and I played for two great coaches, so playing at Granite City is always very special for me," Lipe said. "I played for John van Buskirk at Granite City North for three years, and nobody had a bigger influence on me outside of my family than he did.
"Dick Harmon was also a big influence on me. He just passed away last summer, and I was a pallbearer at his funeral service, along with other former teammates.
"But I'm not involved with this because I'm from Granite City – I'm involved because it's obviously a good cause. Everyone's life is touched by cancer in some way and it's an insidious enemy that we're all battling against."
