The ninth annual Dribble for the Cure will be held at UCLA Sunday, with the Bruin men’s and women’s basketball teams helping raise funds and awareness in the fight against pediatric cancer.
Participants will dribble a basketball over a 1.2-mile course through the campus. Individual participants and teams of at least 10 members are asked to collect pledges.
Prizes will be awarded based on pledge amounts turned in by Sunday.
Registration will be conducted from 8:30-10 a.m. at Drake Stadium, where a welcome ceremony will be held at 10 a.m. The dribble will begin at 10:15 a.m.
Finish line festivities on Collins Court at the John Wooden Center will begin at 11:15 a.m. Participants will be able to meet players and coaches with the UCLA men’s and women’s basketball teams.
More information and registration forms are available at dribbleforthecure.com or by calling (800) 354-7273.
Dribble for the Cure has set donation records for five consecutive years, including $186,700 in gross revenue in 2015, including corporate sponsorships, the university announced.
The event has raised more than $1 million in its history, with proceeds benefiting the Pediatric Cancer Research Foundation and the Cancer Research Program at Mattel Children’s Hospital UCLA.
“There has never been a more exciting time in cancer research than now,” said Dr. Theodore B. Moore, chief of pediatric hematology/oncology at Mattel Children’s Hospital UCLA
Decades of basic research have provided us with insight in how cancers grow and escape the immune system. We are well positioned for the revolution in new targeted therapies to treat cancer.
The sad part is that there is minimal support for research into how these new discoveries can benefit children with cancer. Dribble for the Cure and the Pediatric Cancer Research Foundation provide the partnership that helps make that happen, by supporting new and innovative ideas to revolutionize the therapies for children with cancer.”
Dribble for the Cure was conceived by John Vallely, a starting guard on UCLA’s 1969 and 1970 NCAA championship teams whose daughter, Erin, died from cancer in 1991, when she was 12 years old.
“We haven’t yet eliminated childhood cancer, but we are closer than ever to this goal thanks to so many donations and participants over the last eight years,” said Vallely, a member of the UCLA Athletic Hall of Fame.
— City News Service