MLB to raise prostate cancer awareness on Father's Day
Joins the Prostate Cancer Foundation and Stand Up To Cancer in 2013 Effort to Fight the Disease
As Father's Day weekend approaches, Major League Baseball is teaming up with the Prostate Cancer Foundation (PCF) and Stand Up To Cancer (SU2C) in baseball's annual effort to raise awareness for prostate cancer and fundraise for research to fight the disease.
On Father's Day, MLB players, managers, coaches, trainers, umpires and groundskeepers will wear blue wristbands and blue ribbon uniform decals. Additionally, Clubs will host pre-game ceremonies
and use a special blue MLB Father's Day line-up card. Major League Baseball Charities has committed $50,000 to PCF as part of this effort.
In early June, SU2C and PCF unveiled a new print, broadcast and radio public service announcement featuring music industry icon Quincy Jones and his daughter, actress Rashida Jones. The PSA is available for MLB Clubs to run instadium during games this weekend, including on Father's Day.
Monetary pledges for the 18th annual Prostate Cancer Foundation (PCF) "Home Run Challenge" are more than $800,000, as of today. The joint initiative between Major League Baseball, the Major League Baseball Players Association (MLBPA) and the Prostate Cancer Foundation culminates on Father's Day, Sunday, June 16th, and is intended to increase awareness for prostate cancer early detection. Since its inception, the initiative has raised more than $40 million for PCF, the world's leading philanthropic organization funding and accelerating prostate cancer research.
So far, baseball fans and PCF sponsors have collectively pledged approximately $12,000 per home run hit during select games between June 11th and 16th, including all games on Father's Day. With 67 home runs hit at this point, $800,000 is slated to be donated toward research for prostate cancer. Fans can still pledge to the cause by visiting HomeRunChallenge.org.
Founded in 1993, PCF has raised more than $530 million and provided funding to more than 1,600 research projects at nearly 200 institutions in 16 countries around the world. For more information about PCF, please visit MLBCommunity.org or PCF.org.