Tonight’s girls basketball game at Waynesboro High School will also be a fundraiser for the family of Vanessa “V” Joy.
Joy, a 2008 graduate of Waynesboro High, played post for the school’s girls team with current girls basketball coach Skylar Napier.
“Teammates are always like family,” Napier, who played guard and was a senior when Joy was a freshman, said.
Fundraiser
- A GoFundMe page is also set up to accept donations for Joy’s family.
Napier, a 2004 graduate of Waynesboro High, celebrates her fifth season as coach. A couple of games each season the team fundraises for breast cancer awareness.
A mother of three young children, Joy, 36, died of incurable breast cancer on November 19, 2024. She is survived by her children and husband, Kyle.
“Just when she passed, I thought ‘that’s going to be our breast cancer game,'” Napier said of tonight’s fundraiser.
The high school gymnasium will be decorated with breast cancer awareness decor, and photos of Joy and excerpts that Napier printed out of quotes Joy posted on her Facebook in recent years.
“She was a bubbly person. Her personality would light up the room,” Napier said of her high school teammate. She said that Joy had a passion for sports. She also played volleyball with Napier.
Pink breast cancer bead necklaces, ducks, stickers, banners and balloons will be available. The 50/50 raffle will collect funds until half time and by the fifth period, Napier said, a winner of the raffle will be drawn. Half of the raffle’s earnings will be donated to Joy’s family.
“She was just always funny. She just always had humor,” Napier said of Joy.
Napier said she hopes that tonight’s game is not only an opportunity to help the family but to have a good time and celebrate Joy’s life.
“It’s a great way to honor her for all the time that she spent on the court for volleyball, for basketball,” Napier said.
Waynesboro‘s basketball season ends February 17. Tonight’s game begins at 7:15 p.m. at 1200 W. Main Street, Waynesboro.
“I think she would be proud that we were honoring her,” Napier said. As she organized the fundraiser, she said, “I just see her smiling.”
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Rebecca Barnabi
