Think Pink: PBU Holds Fundraiser For Cancer Victim

Jayme Grimaldi, a member of the Colonial States Athletic Conference family, passed away last week after a five-year battle with breast cancer. She’s the wife of Keystone College Athletic Director Matt Grimaldi.

"I’ve known him (Matt) for at least six years," Philadelphia Biblical University Women’s Basketball Head Coach Drew Watson said. "He’s been a good friend. We heard his wife came out of remission and was ill. We felt like the right thing to do was to raise some money and help cover their medical expenses."

The CSAC is a 12-team Division III conference. The 12 colleges include PBU, Cabrini, Gwynedd-Mercy, Keystone, Neumann, Marywood, Centenary, Immaculata, Rosemont and Baptist.

PBU held its third consecutive basketball doubleheader Thursday night where all gate receipts will go to the Grimaldi Family. For the last two weeks, the school has sold blank pink shirts for $10 a piece. All of the proceeds from the shirts will go to the Grimaldi’s as well. 

"It’s a tragic situation," men’s basketball head coach Jared Yoder said. "The PBU community has really come out, and across the conference they’ve done a great job raising awareness for breast cancer, but also just supporting the Grimaldi Family. It's been neat to just see the love and support from the people that don’t even know them."

PBU Sophomore Jeremy McAlack was seen painting many of the blank pink shirts throughout the night.

“I volunteered to help decorate some of the shirts, and put the Crimson Eagle symbol on it," McAlack said.

PBU’s opponent in game one of the doubleheader, Cedar Crest College, held a fundraiser for the Grimaldi family last week.

"We’re giving them a check of $1,800," Cedar Crest Women’s Basketball Head Coach Valerie Donohue said. "It’s always great to stand up for somebody that’s in your conference. Everybody works together and supports everybody whether you know them personally or not. Our sympathy goes out to their family."

As for the game itself, Cedar Crest pulled away in the second half to win 72-51.  Cedar Crest led 32-28 at halftime.

"Our girls played a solid 40 minutes," Donohue said. "Our team played consistently. PBU did a great job; they brought it tonight. We had to play our best to pull out a W."

On the men’s side, PBU was looking for their first win of the season against Immaculata University. 

Immaculata’s Robert Siter took over the game down the stretch. He scored 15 of his 25 points in the final 10 minutes as the Mighty Macs prevailed 80-72.   

"It’s been a long year," Yoder said. "The good news is that we’ve gotten better. We’re much better now than we were three months ago. I thought we battled tonight. We left it all out on the floor which I’m proud of our guys for."

***Box Scores from the two games can be found below***

Women’s Game

Men’s Game