Get your cleats out.
The deadline is nearing for soccer players and teams to sign up for the 17th annual Kick for a Cure in Coquitlam.
Participants have until the end of the month to register for the adult or youth tournaments — or take part in the kids’ clinics — that will fill Percy Perry Stadium in Town Centre Park on Saturday, July 6, 2024.
Organizer Gloria Cuccione told the Tri-City News that the Michael Cuccione Foundation, a nonprofit started in 1997 and named after her late son, hopes to raise thousands of dollars for the centre it funds at the BC Children’s Hospital: the Michael Cuccione Childhood Cancer Research Program.
Since the foundation began, it has brought in more than $26 million to help find a cure for cancer, a disease that Cuccione battled twice before he died in 2001 from complications following a car accident in Burnaby.
As in past years, Kick for a Cure will transform Percy Percy Stadium and its fields for the day with:
- a kids fun zone
- at the Dominic Mobilio Field (Michael Cuccione's late cousin)
- kids clinics with Alfredo Valente, director of football for the Metro-Ford Soccer Club, and Carl Valentine, the Vancouver Whitecaps FC club ambassador
- at the Ted Fridge Field
- adult matches
- at the main field
As well, there will be a beer garden, burgers, a BBQ, treats and prizes.
“It’s a big day and it’s fun for everybody,” Gloria Cuccione said. “We have kids interacting with kids — and helping kids at the same time.”
And, for the 12th year, the Canadian company Methanex, the world’s largest producer and supplier of methanol, plans to reach its $1-million mark in donations to the foundation; to date, they’ve given more than $800,000 to the cause.
Gloria Cuccione talked about the funding impact to the Michael Cuccione Childhood Cancer Research Program, of which the foundation has pledged $10.5 million toward CAR-T immunotherapy.
For childhood cancers, immunotherapy and CAR-T cell therapy are in their infancy stage; however, with research, medical scientists want to unlock their potential to treat more than just B-cell leukaemia and focus on solid cancers as well, as 60 per cent of childhood cancers are tumours — one of the least curable cancers for kids.
By having a lab at the hospital, Cuccione said, researchers can work side-by-side with doctors and specialists to fight the disease.
Kick for a Cure is one of three signature fundraisers for the Michael Cuccione Foundation each year.
The other two are:
- Golf for a Cure, which on May 24 brought in $140,000 from about 300 golfers at the Golden Ears Golf Club
- a foundation gala, which on Sept. 21 will have its 29th edition at the Italian Cultural Centre
Michael Cuccione was a rising star when his life was cut short 23 years ago — eight days after his 16th birthday.
An actor, singer and dancer, Michael Cuccione was best known as Jason “QT” McKnight in the MTV fictional boy band 2gether, which had a movie and television series, and opened for Britney Spears on tour.
For more details about Kick for a Cure on Saturday, July 6, visit the foundation’s website.
