The Pride Kicks Cancer
Anyone who knows me, knows that I’m incredibly passionate about everything I do. If I’ve learned anything since joining The Pride, it's that when you get a bunch of passionate soccer fans together, you can do incredible things. I saw this first hand when I saw just how much money we were able to raise for Lighthouse Youth Services through our Prideraiser and our scarf sales this past June. In that moment, my wheels started turning…
Pediatric Cancer awareness is a cause I’ve been passionate about since I was in high school when I met a young girl who was battling with Leukemia. Through her, I discovered 3 other kids from my hometown that were battling a form of Leukemia and each one of them changed my perspective on life. I wanted to do something to help.
When I became a soccer fan almost 4 years ago, I noticed that this was a cause that MLS is passionate about too. Each September (Childhood Cancer Awareness Month), they sell scarves and shirts to raise funds for pediatric cancer research and turn the goal nets gold (the color of the cause). I wanted to be apart of this but USL wasn’t doing anything similar. So I figured, while we are joining MLS next year, why should this wait when we could be doing something about it now?
Following the lead from our soon-to-be MLS brethren, a design for a charity t-shirt was created, a plan to collect items for a silent auction was made...but something told me we could still be doing more.
So, taking cues from Prideraiser and Playing for Pride, I reached out to my fellow Pride members to see how we could make a difference and they were immediately receptive. This is where The Pride: Kick Cancer was born. Over the month of September, we will be collecting donations from players (based off starts, assists, and goals) and supporters (based on the number of goals FCC scores during the month) and donating them to the Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center’s Cancer and Blood Diseases Institute (CBDI).
Click here to buy your shirt now!
CBDI is one of the largest clinical care and research centers for pediatric cancers in the nation. They treat 200 new cancer patients each year and follow up with over 2,000 patients from all over the world. Children’s makes a difference through research, treatment, and quality of life while patients are staying there and through Kick Cancer, we can make a difference too. While we love Cincinnati and wanted to do something to make a local impact, by donating to Children’s, we truly will be making a global impact in this cause. I am so happy that I spoke out about this because now we have a chance to create change, even if it’s just the tiniest amount.
*All proceeds from The Pride: Kick Cancer shirts, auction items, and donations will go towards the Cancer and Blood Diseases Institute (CBDI) at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center.*