April 22, 2008
The Texas A&M Athletics Department will hold its first Prostate Cancer Awareness Weekend, presented by the College Station Medical Center and adidas, beginning this Friday in conjunction with the 6th-ranked Aggie baseball team?â„¢s series with No. 4 Missouri at Olsen Field.
Fans attending the games this weekend will be able to purchase commemorative t-shirts for $5, with all of the money raised through the sales going directly to the Prostate Cancer Foundation. A limited number of miniature bats will be distributed at each game and, in addition, a silent auction will be held throughout the weekend. Anyone making a general donation to the foundation or purchasing a t-shirt will receive a blue wristband.
First pitch of Friday?â„¢s opener is set for 6:30 p.m. Saturday?â„¢s game will begin at 2 p.m. and Sunday?â„¢s nationally-televised finale will start at 1 p.m. Tickets for all games are available at the gate or online at aggieathletics.com.
Those attending Sunday?â„¢s finale will be able to see the ?da Vinci? robot, a machine that provides surgeons an alternative to both traditional open surgery and conventional laparoscopy by putting the surgeon?â„¢s hands at the controls of a state-of-the-art robotic platform.
Prostate cancer, the most common non-skin cancer in America, affects one in six men. In 2008, more than 186,000 Americans will be diagnosed with prostate cancer?-one every two and a half minutes?-and more than 28,000 will succumb to the disease, or one every 19 minutes.
The Prostate Cancer Foundation (PCF) is the world's largest philanthropic source of support for prostate cancer research. Founded in 1993, the PCF has raised more than $300 million and provide funding for prostate cancer research to more than 1,400 researchers at nearly 200 institutions worldwide.