Poised to Serve: Grove City Area High School Girls’ Volleyball Team

Kiran Mehta, MD, (left) accepts a donation for the Passavant Hospital Foundation’s Cancer Care Fund from her patient, breast cancer survivor Carol Losasso (center). The funds were raised by the Grove City Area High School Girls’ Volleyball Team to honor Losasso, the mother of their coach, Megan Jones (pictured fourth from the right). Team seniors accompanied Losasso and Jones to the UPMC Hillman Cancer Center at UPMC Passavant for the check presentation and a facility tour.

Every year since 2014, the girls’ varsity volleyball team at Grove City Area High School has held a Pink Out event during one of their biggest rivalry matches of the season. At the game, they sell T-shirts, hold a basket auction and conduct a 50/50 raffle to honor a local resident or family member in their fight against cancer. All the money raised from the event goes to the honoree to use any way they wish, whether it be to offset medical costs or to help fulfill a goal that has been sidelined by their illness.

This past season, the team’s honoree was their coach’s mom, Carol Losasso, for whom the girls raised $3,193.

Losasso was diagnosed with breast cancer last year. She underwent a lumpectomy at UPMC Shadyside, then proceeded to the UPMC Hillman Cancer Center at UPMC Passavant for her radiation treatments. Under the supervision of Medical Director of Radiation Oncology Kiran Mehta, MD, Losasso endured her radiation regimen, which she finished just in time for a long-awaited cruise with her husband. Today, she manages her treatment with a daily oral medication that she will need to continue taking for the next five years.

“Dr. Mehta and the staff at UPMC Passavant truly knew what I was going through and they made me feel so much better,” Losasso says. “Everyone was so positive and so nice. I hope everybody in the community realizes how much UPMC Passavant helps people.”

Upon learning she was this year’s Pink Out honoree, Losasso immediately knew she wanted to pay it forward. She donated the entire $3,193 to Passavant Hospital Foundation’s Cancer Care Fund, which supports financially struggling oncology patients cover necessities such as food, shelter, transportation, end-of-life care, utility bills, medication, wigs, and more.

“It was an easy decision,” Losasso says.

Passavant Hospital Foundation President/CEO Anthony R. Savannah appreciates Losasso’s generosity. “Our Cancer Care Fund has distributed over $150,000 to more than 400 patients since it was launched in 2014,” he says. “The kindness of these high school girls to raise this money to support Carol, and then Carol’s selflessness in donating it to help others who are going through what she went through is so inspiring. It’s this kind of community spirit that helps make what we do at the Foundation so rewarding.”

Losasso (left) and her family at the Pink Out event.

Losasso’s daughter, Coach Megan Jones, feels blessed to have her mom on the mend and to have such a great group of kids on her volleyball team. “The girls always look forward to each year’s Pink Out,” she said, “but they were even more excited this year knowing it was for my mom. They’re just incredible kids.”