As part of September being Childhood Cancer Awareness Month, this Friday, Sept. 6, Pope High School in Marietta is hosting its annual Matt Hobby Classic football game to benefit the Rally Foundation, an Atlanta-based organization, which raises funds for research and treatments for childhood cancer. Matt Hobby was a former football player who was diagnosed with Ewing Sarcoma in 2003. Matt battled cancer for three years and passed away at 17 years old, a few days after his graduation from Pope. Before his passing he shared with his parents, “I have lived 17 years and been able to do a lot of great things, but the little kids with cancer need a chance to live. Tell them to raise money for research.”
A Pope High School mom as well, Dean Crowe was already in the process of starting the Rally Foundation, when she learned about Matt. She partnered with Matt, his parents, and the Pope community partnered to launch the first 4Quarters4Research fundraising campaign at Pope High School. During the four quarters of Friday’s football game, buckets will be passed through the stadium for fans to fill with their loose change to be donated to Rally’s efforts to fund childhood cancer research and treatments. Since the first game in 2006, more than 300 schools in 10 states have held their own 4Quarters4Research events funding hundreds of thousands of dollars in research. In that first year they raised $1,700, since then the Matt Hobby Classic has raised over $360,000. The 4Q4R program in total has raised over $2 million.
Kickoff will be at 7:30 against Sprayberry High School at 3001 Hembree Road in Marietta.
You can learn more about Matt here and the annual fundraiser here.
To learn more about Rally Foundation, visit www.rallyfoundation.org and follow Rally Foundation on Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn.
