By Delinda Lombardo on
Soccer star Mia Hamm and her husband, former Dodger Nomar Garciaparra, will host their third annual ‘Celebrity Soccer Challenge’ on January 16 at the Home Depot Center in Carson California to raise money and awareness about bone marrow disease.
Last years event raised nearly $200,000 for Children's Hospital Los Angeles and the Mia Hamm Foundation while encouraging the thousands of fans in attendance to register for the National Marrow Donor Program Registry.
It is a cause close to Hamm’s heart, because she lost her brother Garrett to aplastic anemia, a bone marrow disease, in 1997.
“The more we can spread the word, the better,” Hamm said. “We can’t do justice by just verbalizing, so stopping and registering can save a life.”
Mia and Nomar’s passion was on exhibit Monday as the humanitarian couple visited sick children in the Healing Garden at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles. Some of those children are bone marrow transplant patients who will benefit from the couple’s third annual Celebrity Soccer Challenge.
The charity soccer challenge gives fans a chance to become potential donors and save lives. The past two events have seen more than 200 people register, but there’s a shortage of minorities in the registry. Hamm and Garciaparra are hoping to change that.
“There is no color barrier when you walk through that hospital,” Garciaparra said. “Cancer doesn’t discriminate one bit.”
All proceeds from the soccer event will go to Childrens Hospital and the Mia Hamm Foundation.
Confirmed participants include:
- Soccer players: Mia Hamm, Julie Foudy, Kristine Lilly, Brandi Chastain, Joy Fawcett, Heather O’Reilly, Shannon Boxx, Gerson Mayen, Edson Buddle.
- Athletes: Nomar Garciaparra, Kerri Walsh, Casey Jennings, Ryan Nyquist, Eric Fonoimoana, Jordan Farmar (Los Angeles Lakers).
- Celebrities: Sabrina Bryan, Gilles Marini, Rivers Cuomo, James Lesure, Dule Hill, Adrian R’Mante, Donald Faison, Josh Hutcherson and many, many more.
Tickets are available here.
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