BUIES CREEK, N.C. - Over the weekend, members of Campbell's softball team held a "Play for a Cure" donation clinic to benefit redshirt junior catcher Amanda Littlejohn. Littlejohn is currently fighting cancer back home in California. With the support of the local community, private donations and the 52 campers that attended the team raised $1,615 to donate to a fund to aid the Littlejohn family defray the medical costs for surgeries and radiation treatments that she is currently undergoing.

Littlejohn was the starting catcher for the Camels during the 2007 and 2008 season. In the summer of 2007 she was diagnosed with melanoma. She fought the disease while continuing to play the game of softball during the spring 2008 season, a season in which she had a historic campaign with a .367 batting average, 84 hits, 15 home runs and a school-record 72 RBIs and ended with Campbell making the NCAA Tournament for the first time in 13 years.

The cancer was thought to be in remission until November 2008 when Littlejohn got the tragic news that the cancer had returned and a malignant tumor was found in her brain. Littlejohn, a California native, flew back home to fight the disease once again with the support of her family. Over the summer, after surgery in her brain to remove the tumors, Littlejohn was cleared by her doctors to play and given a clean bill of health in July 2009. The joy was short-lived though as this past September two more tumors were found in her brain. Littlejohn is currently living back in California and began radiation treatments last month.

The team donated three hours of their time for the clinic on Saturday, Nov. 7 at the Eakes Athletic Complex to aid their fallen teammate. The team began the clinic by thanking everyone for coming out to support Littlejohn. The attendees were then divided into age groups so one group could work on hitting, while the other group worked on defense. In the hitting group the players explained their philosophy of hitting and broke the group into individual stations. Among the stations were ones for visual drills, base running, tennis ball toss, front toss and working with tees. After the station work was completed the hitting group were divided into teams and played a game. The game awarded points based on the different type of hits (pop ups, ground balls and line drives) they players recorded in situations. The team with the most points in the allotted time period were declared the winner. The defensive group saw the Campbell players explain fundamentals, work on different defensive drills and situations and then have the campers make the proper plays when called upon. During the defensive drills, pitchers and catchers were allowed to break away to work on their position with Campbell players that pitched and caught.

"Amanda is the inspiration of our team, last year we played for her and we will continue to do that until she is back with us," senior first baseman Cassie Webb explained. "Having this fundraiser was simply amazing. It is wonderful to see how incredible people are all around us. A big thank you goes out to everyone who was involved with putting this clinic on, for all the players that attended and the parents that gave so unselfishly. All the credit for the success of this event needs to go directly to Amanda, though. She is a wonderful person that has made a tremendous impact on us as players, the Campbell community, and numerous people that haven't even had the opportunity to personally meet her."