Philly Sports Jabronis
Report From Philadelphia Union
CHESTER, Pa. – Philadelphia Union today announced that it is set to host an unveil event at Talen Energy Stadium on Friday, August 25 to culminate an ongoing project involving First Team players and pediatric cancer patients or survivors.
Earlier in the season, 15 children were paired with 15 Union players for a visit to team training, followed by a lunch where the children shared their interests with their accompanying Union player. Together, the players and the children drew a cleat design based on those discussions. Those shoe drawings were then sent to artist Troy Cole, also known as Kickasso, who has since brought them to life, building 15 real-life pairs of boots matching the collaborative design by each individual child and his or her paired Union player.
On Friday, August 25, Kickasso will bring the boots to Talen Energy Stadium, where each of the children will again watch the entirety of the Union’s training earlier that day, followed by the special unveil event in the TruMark Financial Club at Talen Energy Stadium beginning at 12:00 p.m. ET.
ATTACHED: Attached please find a sample of a drawing created by a pediatric cancer patient/survivor and a Union player. The drawing served as a model for a real-life pair of cleats (show in the image as a blank template) that will be unveiled on Friday, August 25 at this event.
Union players will then wear these special boots in warmups during Philadelphia’s Pediatric Cancer Awareness match against the Chicago Fire on Saturday, September 23. Players will autograph one of the pairs of shoes for each child to take home following that game, while each child will do the same for their accompanying Union player to keep.
The event on Friday, August 25 will be the first time that either the children or the Union players will see the real-life version of the boots. The boots were all created by Kickasso, the artist who was also commissioned by the National Football League for the “My Cause My Cleats” campaign that saw players able to wear custom cleats to support the charity of their choice. The Union are the first and only MLS team to undertake this project alongside Kickasso.
The list of Union players participating in the initiative, and the pediatric cancer patient or survivor each was paired with (and his or her age), is as follows:
CJ Sapong – Brett Staino (10)
Charlie Davies – Daniel Cooper (13)
Josh Yaro – Eli Profy (9)
Chris Pontius – Hudson Kettering (14)
Keegan Rosenberry – Jaxon Ford (6)
Brian Carroll – Ryan Cartafalsa (9)
Maurice Edu – Travis Cook (15)
John McCarthy – Marisa Nero (8)
Roland Alberg – Dylan Davis-Thorpe (7)
Fabinho – Justin Pritikin (17)
Oguchi Onyewu – Lily Adkins (11)
Ray Gaddis – Felicia Ludovici (12)
Andre Blake – Nicholas Weideman (6)
Warren Creavalle – Daniel Lebow (4)
Alejandro Bedoya – Liam Sheridan (3)
