American Top Team Pitches in to Battle Cancer Once Again

Back in the spring of 2009, my daughter (who was eight years old at the time) came home from school with a flyer asking parents to send in a dollar to help a family whose 10-year-old son was stricken with cancer. The flyer also asked that the children draw a picture for Christian to try and cheer him up.

Being a father of two young children, I immediately felt compelled to help.

I had already donated some money to a charity established by a family who had lost their five-year-old daughter to cancer. Patrick Wright and I had become friendly after I heard the story of his little girl's battle with cancer on ESPN Radio.

When it came time to deliver the proceeds of the original auction, I was a nervous wreck. Patrick gave some advice on what not to say and how to approach the situation.

When I looked further into helping out Christian’s family, I realized I was friends with both parents, as we had gone to high school together. I wanted to do more than donate a few dollars—I wanted to bring attention to their cause and to pediatric cancer as a whole. If you’re a parent, I don’t have to tell you how the hair on your arms stand up when you hear the word cancer, and it’s connected to a young child.

I decided to take advantage of the connections I had made while writing about the great sport of Mixed Martial Arts.

I contacted managers, fighters I had interviewed before, and last but not least, I spoke to Richie Guerrero from American Top Team. I had developed a good relationship with Richie; he was very easy to talk to and allowed me access to the great roster of fighters who train at ATT.

Without getting into too much detail, Richie was more than happy to help. I am including a link to the original story I wrote which detailed the plight of Christian and his family, as well as the donated items I had put up for auction on eBay.

Richie and Eddie Miranda didn’t hesitate to help, and even emailed me to ask for updates on Christian’s condition. When I emailed them informing them of Christian’s passing in early June of that year, they were upset and asked if there was anything else they could do.

Now here we are, over two years later, and I find myself trying to help another great cause.

My son is six years old and in first grade. Last year he was in Kindergarten, and his teacher was quote possibly the nicest human being we have ever met. Not only did my son absolutely adore her, my wife and I fell in love with her passion and dedication to her students.

She took a special interest in my son and became close with my wife, who was the class mom. It wasn’t that long before we were informed that she had been diagnosed with breast cancer a few years back.

My son understood as best he could and she told us that it was almost like he knew when her days were rough. He was very close with her and always seemed to have the right words or a hug for her when she needed it the most.

Despite being so sick at times, she never let it effect her job or the way she treated her students. She does a lot of fund raising for the American Cancer Society; she runs marathons, walk-a-thons and other methods to help raise money and awareness. My son asked me to help, so I went back to the well one more time.

I contacted Richie from ATT, and this time he donated a framed poster from UFC 59 that has the signatures of Forrest Griffin, Tim Sylvia, Andrei Arlovski, Tito Ortiz, Sean Sherk, Nick Diaz, Thiago Alves and others.

They shipped it from Florida to Long Island, NY, and to insure that the item wouldn’t get damaged, they built a wooden frame to cover the poster and the frame that it is set in.

I have listed this item on eBay and will include that information at the end of this story. Once again, ATT went above and beyond in order to help someone they have never met.

While this article isn’t going to educate you on the sport of MMA or provide you with any ground-breaking news or rumors, it will hopefully help to show the world that the people behind the great sport of MMA are not barbaric or blood thirsty.

They are compassionate, caring human beings who go out of their way to help others.

Please take a few minutes to read this and check out the poster on EBay. Send it to as many people as possible and let them know how far their help will go.

This poster will look great in a den, man cave or your living room. If you can’t afford to bid on the poster, you can always visit the ACS website and donate whatever you can afford.

I thank you in advance for reading this and hopefully passing it along. If you have any questions, please contact me at [e-mail]