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MOOSIC — Nicole Hapshe has devoted her career to help fight cancer and support those battling the disease.
So when she learned that the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders were looking for a few more community ambassadors for the Triple-A National Championship Game on Sept. 19 at PNC Field, she knew she had to get involved.
“One of my volunteers actually volunteers here for the RailRiders. He came into my office on Friday and said, ‘Have you seen this?’” Hapshe, the director of Candy’s Place in Forty Fort, said of when she was brought a newspaper article looking for more community ambassadors. “I read it and, it really, just something inside me said, ‘You need to reach out to (RailRiders director of community relations) Jordan (Maydole).’ We did the community day here one night, so I reached out to Jordan and said, ‘I really want to be a part of this. I think it’ll be great obviously for cancer awareness, and also bring Candy’s Place out more too.”
Hapshe is one of 17 community ambassadors, who will lead the promotion of the game in their respective regions, and heads the Kingston, Forty Fort, Wyoming, Plymouth region.
Ten of the 17 community ambassadors were on hand Thursday at PNC Field. With them were members of the RailRiders front office and ownership group, including co-managing owner David Abrams.
Abrams has been at the forefront throughout the planning process for Sept. 19, and it was his idea to turn the Triple-A National Championship Game into a night to fight cancer. The RailRiders’ efforts center around the fundraising of $250,000 that will go toward the research for — and fight against — the disease.
“One of the quotes we always use as an ownership group is, ‘We’re going to do well by doing good,’” Abrams said. “It’s really not a complicated phrase. So that is our motto and I think in this case, we’re going to do a lot of good.”
Former Major League pitcher and member of the RailRiders’ ownership group Andy Ashby is the community ambassador for Pittston. Russell Keeler, who is a National Relay Leadership Team Advocacy Lead for the American Cancer Society, is the Wilkes-Barre community ambassador.
Hapshe, Ashby and Keeler’s goal as community ambassadors are the same. They want to bring as many people as they can to the game on Sept. 19, and help Abrams and the rest of the RailRiders reach their goal of 10,000 people inside PNC Field.
“I really want to raise as much money (as possible) — I want to go over their goal amount — and I really want to help them bring more awareness, and also just have a lot of fun at this game,” Hapshe said. “It’ll be a lot of fun and I think a lot of people don’t realize how prevalent cancer is, but we’ve had 15 new patients walk in and they’re 24-year-olds. They’re younger.”
“I’ll do whatever they want me to do,” Ashby added. “I thank God every day that I’m put into this situation where I can help people and give something back, so any time I have the opportunity to do it I’m going to do it.”
“I didn’t know what I was getting involved in until today, but it’s definitely awesome and everybody’s benefiting and the area’s going to benefit,” Keeler said. “I was excited a week ago, but I’m even more excited now.”