Dr. Edward Hinchcliffe, a section leader at The Hormel Institute, accepts a check donation Tuesday afternoon from the Austin High School boys basketball team and its booster club for $2,500 to support The Hormel Institute’s breast cancer research. Photo submitted.

Austin High School’s boys basketball team and its booster club donated $2,500 Tuesday to The Hormel Institute, marking the first major donation of Austin’s second annual Paint the Town Pink initiative that officially starts Friday and runs through Feb. 10.

Dr. Edward Hinchcliffe, who leads the cellular dynamics research section at The Hormel Institute, accepted the donation this afternoon in Packer Gym at Austin High and thanked the basketball team’s players, coaches and members of the AHS Fast Break Boys Booster Club. All money raised by the event goes to The Hormel Institute for breast cancer research.

The team’s first “Hoops for Hope — Shooting for a Cure” game took place Jan. 17, when it defeated Rochester John Marshall 80-77 in front of a packed crowd. The event served as an early kickoff for Paint the Town Pink.

The AHS Fast Break Boys Booster Club sponsored the cancer awareness evening with Austin Packers head coach Kris Fadness and Austin High Activities Director Lisa Quednow-Bickler. Booster Club member Mike Olmsted was the lead organizer of the event.

For more information, contact the Austin Convention and Visitors Bureau at 507-437-4563 or go to www.austincvb.com.