Way to Go: Eric Ramsay, Bay Shore

A Bay Shore High School senior has helped serve up contributions totaling more than $40,000 for children with leukemia during the past four years through an annual tennis fundraiser.

Eric Ramsay, 17, raised the funds by attracting scores of players to Southward Ho Country Club in Bay Shore. This year's effort, which included a disc jockey and a dunk tank, drew almost 70 players in August.

Participants were ages 18 and younger, and funds were raised through various raffles as well as $40 entry fees, he said.

Ramsay said he took over coordinating the event in 2011 after the responsibility was passed down to him from a graduating Bay Shore student.

"It's definitely getting bigger," he said. "When I took over, I wanted to make it a focal point of my life . . . Cancer affects everybody, and if I can help make a difference in people's lives, that's important to me."

The event benefits Charlie Champion's Foundation, a Garden City-based nonprofit that strives to raise awareness and funds to benefit children with cancer. The foundation helps patients at the Cancer Center for Kids, located at Winthrop-University Hospital in Mineola.

Ramsay is captain of the high school's golf and tennis teams.