Waterford — Each year on top of the hill near Bayview Health Care, walkers in the Terri Brodeur Foundation's Walk for a Cure are cheered on by a group of girls with pink beaded necklaces, pom-poms and Waterford High School jerseys.

Each year, the high school's junior and varsity girls' soccer teams volunteer as a spirit team, providing encouragement and support to the walkers.

Head soccer coach Chris Ghiglia said the team has participated in the walk for the eight years he has been coach and his predecessor also did it for a couple of years.

"It teaches the girls the importance of giving back to the community," he said. "Breast cancer affects everyone in a way."

Ghiglia's own mother, a survivor, was treated for breast cancer 19 years ago.

Lily Marelli, a senior on the soccer team, has been at the walk the past four years. Even in 2020, when the fundraising for the foundation went completely online, Marelli said the team did a two-mile walk at Harkness Memorial State Park to raise donations.

Marelli, whose aunt battled breast cancer a couple of years ago, said volunteering at the walk "hits home" for her and her cousin, who is also in the team.

"We're really proud we can do this every year," she said. "We go all out because we're putting smiles on people's faces."

Senior team member Maddie Myers went to two walks Saturday. She attended and spoke at the women's reproductive walk in New London and afterwards joined her teammates to cheer on walkers.

Myers said it is "fufilling" to see all the women come together in the walk.

"As a young woman, that empowers me. One day I will do that walk and I hope to see the soccer team cheering me on on top of that hill," she said.

The girls will also hold their annual "Pink Game" next Saturday, wearing pink jerseys and headbands in a home game against Morgan High School at 10 a.m. to raise funds for the Terri Brodeur Foundation. Ghiglia said there will be a basket raffle and a table with breast cancer information. Hartford Healthcare is sponsoring the event and matching the team's donations.

Participants in the 16th annual Walk for a Cure on Saturday had the option of walking a full, half, or quarter marathon, or a 5K, and commit to various levels of fundraising. The full marathon is 26.2 miles, extending from Old Saybrook to Camp Harkness in Waterford.

The soccer team was one of five spirit teams strategically placed in locations along the route in East Lyme and Waterford where walkers may need extra motivation. The other spirit teams were from youth services in Waterford and girls' athletic teams from East Lyme and Norwich.

"That hill is the death hill," said Pam Watt, the TBF's matching gift administrator and member of it's Board of Directors, about the incline near Bayview.  "It feels never-ending."

Watt, who is a breast cancer survivor and has participated in the walk since 2009, said it is "fantastic" to see the girls cheer her on, seeing them only as she gets to the top of the hill.

Kate Davis, the chair of the event, said the girls cheered the nearly 300 participants who so far have raised more than over $190,000, all of which will go directly to breast cancer research.

j.vazquez@theday.com