$10,000 is raised in first cancer awareness football game

Photo courtesy of Kathy Howa

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Laura Aberton, a cancer survivor, tosses the coin to begin the game in her honor between Cottonwood High School and Cyprus High School during Cottonwood's senior night. Her son, Kyle Aberton, organized the cancer awareness ?pink? game to raise funds for research.

SALT LAKE CITY - Kyle Aberton raised more than $10,000 for breast cancer research by organizing a pink cancer awareness football game for senior night between Cottonwood High School and Cyprus High School. He is a 2010 graduate of Cottonwood High School, a member of the National Honor Society, on the National Honor Roll, a National Merit Scholar and received the Diploma of Merit. He received the Utah Interscholastic Athletic Administrators Award, where athletic directors choose someone who has performed outstanding service in the community and achieved academically and athletically. He also received the Parent Teacher Scholastic Award.

Aberton, a member of Saint Vincent de Paul Parish, was accepted to Yale University in Connecticut and will play football there. He is a defensive back and also was the captain of Cottonwood's varsity football team his junior and senior years. He was a three-time Region 6 champion in the 4x100 relay in track and a 2010 State Champion in the 4x100 relay. "Going to Yale will be a whole different experience, but I am looking forward to living on the East Coast," said Aberton, who wants to go into a law-related field.

Aberton organized the pink football game because when he was in the sixth grade, his mother, Laura was diagnosed with breast cancer. "At the time, it was really hard for me to do anything to help," he said. "So when I got older I wanted to do something to honor my mother, to help the cause and to help other people who have to go through this. Kathy Howa, a family friend, is the president of Swing for Life, an organization that raises money for the Huntsman Cancer Institute. She is a softball and volleyball coach, and is always having pink softball and volleyball games to raise funds for Swing for Life. So I wanted to be the first person to have a pink football game because that is my passion and I always play for my mom just knowing her life could end at any time. It was so special for me to have this game."

During the game both teams wore pink gloves, pink stickers and pink socks, Aberton said. "It was really cool because even the referees' lives had been touched by cancer in some way," he said. "Both schools were phenomenal. We had raffles and sold pink shirts to both student bodies, so it was a pink out and a fun night. The motto Cottonwood and Cyprus came up with was ‘black and blue for pink.' My mom was very emotional but very happy."

"When you are going through breast cancer, it is hard to appreciate what your family is going through at the same time," said Laura Aberton. "I knew it was devastating for Kyle but not how much it affected him. For him to plan this game five years later made me realize, ‘Wow, he must be thinking about it all the time.' It was an honor."

Howa, also a breast cancer survivor said she was excited when Aberton started the first pink cancer awareness football game, "because I thought if these big tough guys could realize this could happen to their mothers, grandmothers, sisters, girlfriends and aunts, it could only get better from there," she said. "Kyle and his family worked hard and put so much into this game. Kyle is an outstanding and very kind young man and had a mission to do something in his mother's name. He went after something that was close to his heart. It's not about how much he raised, it's about how caring he was and how hard he worked."