San Francisco, CA --- The Academy of Art women's basketball team came together, with over hundreds of other participants, to fight lung cancer and increase ongoing survival in loving Memory of Jill Costello.

Costello was a member of the Cal Women's Rowing Team and passed away from complications due to lung cancer on June 24th 2010, at the age of 21. The first Jog For Jill event  was held on February 8, 2010. Costello's campus chapter of the Kappa Kappa Gamma sorority and raised more than $37,000 for the Bonnie J. Addario Lung Cancer Foundation.

"This season we are doing our best to prioritize our community outreach efforts," said Head Coach Lindsey Yamasaki, "I want our players to be involved in events where they can not only represent the University as collegiate student-athlete role models, but where they, themselves, can also gain perspective."

The Jog for Jill walk was special to one player in particular, "One of our new players, Michelle Koike, went to school with Jill and has many mutual friends," added Yamasaki.

On Sunday September 12, 2010 the Bonnie J. Addario Lung Cancer Foundation hosted the second Jog For Jill in San Francisco at Golden Gate Park. Jog for Jill invites people to sit, sprint, sprawl, crawl, dance, prance, stroll, cajole, saunter, meander, hop, skip, jump or fly to raise much needed funding for lung cancer Research.

"Jog for Jill was an incredible experience for our team!" Yamasaki said.  

Yamaski continued, "Not only were we able to show support for our teammate, Michelle, but we were a part of a benefit walk that contributes to research for lung cancer."

Yamasaki concluded, "It's events like these when our team bonds in a way that they would not have in any other circumstance; not on the court nor on road trips. It was such a great feeling hearing my team express such a strong sense of fulfillment and their desire to be involved in similar events in the future."

Sunday's event more than tripled the number of attendees from February and helped raise more than $300,000.