Although Texas Ice Hockey was defeated Saturday by Texas A&M, the real victors of the game were survivors and families of those suffering with breast cancer.

Texas Hockey and the University Panhellenic Council partnered to raise about $1,000 for the Austin affiliate of the Susan G. Komen Foundation through ticket and shirt sales at their ‘Pink In the Rink’ game, hosted by the Texas Stars.

The hard fought game was the last of the season and resulted in a final score of 8-5. Texas Hockey donated all of the money earned to the Komen Foundation — approximately $4 out of every $15 ticket, said biology senior and Texas Hockey president, Kisan Parikh.

The idea for the charity arose out of discussions with last year’s coaches, said finance junior and Texas Hockey team member Alec Helman, who planned the event with other members of the team.

“The fundraiser was giving us an option to be really creative by letting us fundraise through tickets, shirts and letting us create special jerseys,” Helman said. “We had a lot of ideas and found it pretty interesting, and I took it upon myself to kind of plan the event.”

Helman said the cooperation with the Panhellenic council of sororities came out of discussions he had with friends who were members of the organization. The Panhellenic council helped by publicizing the event and letting the Greek community know about the event, he said.

“We knew they wanted a little more publicity about the team and wanted to get people to attend the charity event,” said communications junior and Panhellenic council member, Shira Golden. “Since we already work with Komen on Race for the Cure, we decided to help publicize the game to promote community cooperation and outreach.”

Golden said that the recent shakeup between Planned Parenthood and the Komen Foundation did not affect their involvement in the fundraiser.

“The event was picked because we thought breast cancer was an important thing to give back to, and by the time that came out the event was already publicized,” Golden said. “We focused on us giving back to a good cause, rather than the relationships Komen had and what was being done by those in charge of the organization.”

UT Hockey sponsors charity games like ‘Pink in the Rink’ at least once a year, but they hope to improve this event and make it an annual fundraiser, Parikh said.

“This started out as a pet project and blew up until now,” Parikh said. “We are planning next year to make ‘Pink in the Rink’ a required event to cooperate with the sororities and have the event fulfill their semester service pledge.

Hopefully we’ll be able to raise more money and get some Susan G. Komen people out here. At the moment it looks like this is just a pilot year for others down the road.”

Printed on Monday, February 20, 2012 as: 'Pink in the Rink' charity helps Komen Foundation