This weekend, students Sam Rosenberg and Evan Phillips, both 14, raised more than $12,000 for children’s cancer research, bringing their total to $37,500 in support for the cause in just three years.
The tournament was initially founded as a bar mitzvah project, but has since grown to a massive annual event that has the teens eyeing larger goals.
“We originally founded the tournament as a bar mitzvah project, but decided to keep it going because of how good it makes us feel to give back,” Rosenberg said. “Our goal before we graduate high school is to raise $100,000, because that’s how much money it takes to start a new clinical trial.”
Hundreds of families filled the Sports Underdome in Mount Vernon during the two-day tournament, where a dozen teams comprised entirely of students from the lower Hudson Valley and Greenwich squared off in brackets named for cookies. A sixth-grade team from Pelham won the Sugar Cookie bracket, while the Larchmont/Mamaroneck seventh and eighth-grade teams won the Chocolate Chip Cookie bracket.
All proceeds from the Be a Good Cookie Tournament are being donated to “Cookies for Kids Cancer,” a non-profit organization that raises funds and awareness for research into more treatable, less toxic treatments for childhood cancer.
“We knew we wanted to do something that would have a positive impact on kids,” Phillips added. “With cancer being the number one cause of death by disease of children in the U.S., Cookies for Kids' Cancer was a great fit for what we hope to achieve.”
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