GeezerJock announces a fund-raising initiative for the Prostate Cancer Foundation and we're counting on your help
The National Basketball Association honors the league's best "sixth man" with an annual award. Some greats have won the award: Bobby Jones, Kevin McHale, Bill Walton and Ricky Pierce, to name just a few. The all-time best sixth man was John Havlicek, who played on the Boston Celtics before the league started giving out the award.
So what does it mean to be a sixth man? It means you are the best player coming off the bench. It means you're ready at any time and that you have a mighty offensive punch and can put the clamps on the other team defensively. You have to be an all-around player. It's good to be the sixth man.
Usually. There is, sadly, another context where being the sixth man is not good, and, in fact, could have deadly consequences. One in six American men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer. That is a staggering statistic. The math suggests some frightening scenarios: Whenever two softball teams take the field, at least three of the men playing will eventually be diagnosed with prostate cancer; when the Senior Olympics convene in Louisville, Ky., this summer and the three-on-three hoops tournament begins, an average of at least one man from every game will eventually be diagnosed with prostate cancer; in every 10K and triathlon, at least dozens--if not hundreds--of the male participants will get prostate cancer.
And yet there has been very little national discussion about prostate cancer. Male celebrities who have battled the disease--and there are plenty--don't want to be associated with it as spokesmen. Men in general don't want to talk about it, because the disease has to do with issues "down there." GeezerJock wants to help. In 2007, GeezerJock is partnering with the Prostate Cancer Foundation's Athletes for a Cure program, a fund-raising and awareness effort to assist individual athletes in their quest to raise money for better treatments and a cure for prostate cancer. Every dollar raised from the program goes directly to the PCF.
The online program--which you can see at www.athletesforacure.org--provides athletes with multiple tools to upload photos, personal stories and race/event information on their own home page; set donation goals; send emails to their friends and family through the "Friends Asking Friends" network; and watch as their donations climb. We would like to see as many of you as possible sign up to raise money for this program.
To encourage you, GeezerJock and Athletes for a Cure have created a fundraising contest for athletes during 2007. The athletes who raise the most money during this year will win great prizes and will be honored in the pages of GeezerJock. So when you sign up at www.athletesforacure.org, be sure to do so through the GeezerJock program links on the site. We will track the progress of the contest in each issue of GeezerJock throughout 2007.
You can raise money by finding donors for any type of sporting event you participate in during 2007. For example, you can have your family, friends and coworkers contribute $1 per mile when you complete a marathon, or they could donate one penny for every yard you complete in a one-hour postal swim. The only limits are your imagination and sales skills. In particular, Athletes for a Cure will partner with several Masters organizations, including USA Track & Field and U.S. Masters Swimming.
In addition to the fund-raising contest, GeezerJock is donating $5 from every paid subscription in 2007 to the Athletes for a Cure program, so now is a great time to encourage your friends, teammates and training partners to subscribe to the magazine. There are many worthy causes that deserve our attention. With our audience, however, we felt that focusing on prostate cancer in 2007 would be a good thing for us to do. We are also working with other prostate cancer-oriented charities, such as UsToo.org, on ways of helping them get their word out. We would like to raise a lot of money for PCF, and we'll need your help to do so. Please be generous.
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