Play for Josh set for May 9
| Josh Depew will be the focus of Mount St. Mary's
game with SUNY Orange. Mount St. Mary photo by Justin Satkowski |
Mount Saint Mary College will host “Play for Josh”,
a fundraising baseball game to support Josh Depew, a Mount Saint
Mary student-athlete, who has acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL).
The game between Mount Saint Mary and SUNY Orange is set for 7:00
p.m. on Monday, May 9 at Dutchess Stadium in Fishkill.
Depew was first diagnosed with ALL in 2008 while a student-athlete
at Southern Connecticut State University. After being diagnosed in
March, Depew began chemotherapy and the cancer went into remission
in May. He transferred to SUNY Orange in 2009 and pitched for the
Colts during the spring of 2010 while undergoing maintenance
chemotherapy.
Depew transferred again, this time to Mount Saint Mary College for
the fall semester. As the team's top pitcher this spring, Josh made
seven starts and was set to lead the Knights to the Skyline
Conference playoffs. But during a routine checkup, Depew learned
that the cancer had returned in a more aggressive form. He began
chemotherapy sessions on Friday, April 15 and will need a bone
marrow transplant to prevent future returns of the cancer.
All proceeds from the “Play for Josh” baseball game
will be donated to Friends of Josh, a support organization set up
to pay for Depew's hospital expenses, treatments, and travel
expenses.
Tickets to the game will be available at the gate for a price of
$5.00 and the teams will be conducting raffles, as well as
collecting donations. Together with MSMC Health Services and the Be
the Match Bone Marrow Registry, the teams will also be hosting a
bone marrow donor drive at the game.
In addition to the “Play for Josh” event, Mount Saint
Mary College will be collecting donations at the Skyline Conference
baseball tournament this weekend hosted by Farmingdale State
College. Donations will be accepted and the proceeds from raffles
at Friday's and Saturday's games will be donated to Friends of
Josh.
The Mount athletic department would like to extend a special thank
you to Farmingdale athletic director, Mike Harrington, Farmingdale
associate athletic director, Tom Azzara, Skyline Conference
commissioner, Linda Bruno, and the rest of the Skyline Conference
institutions, for their generous support.
