Glenbrook South girls tennis team raising money to aid in fight against skin cancer

The Glenbrook South girls tennis program has spent its season trying to increase awareness about the dangers of melanoma and raising money to help build a national tissue bank.

The program, which includes 49 girls, has been working with Skin of Steel, a Glenview-based non-profit organization started by Susan Steel. The Titans participated in the Long Grove Heritage 5K Run on Sept. 7 to try to raise money. They also visited, and are visiting, local businesses to ask them to match the amount of money they raise — their goal is $1,500 — or make a donation to the cause.

The money the team raises will go toward helping build a national tissue bank with a center of research at the Robert H. Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Center in Chicago.

Glenbrook South coach Katie Nicolotti said raising money to help fight melanoma is an issue the Titans are passionate about because of the nature of the sport they play. It’s also very dangerous, especially for young people. Melanoma is the second-most common of all cancers in men and women ages 15-29, according to skincancer.org.

“I think the girls, upon hearing some of these statistics and being outdoors all the time, playing tennis, thought that it was just a really worthy cause and liked the fact that (Skin of Steel) was a local organization,” Nicolotti said. “It makes it a little bit more accessible to us as a team, and so they’ve just kind of made it their cause and really adopted it.”

Visit skinofsteel.org for more information on Susan Steel’s organization and to learn more about melanoma.