MONTREAL, February 9, 2006 – Montreal Impact team captain Mauro Biello and Montreal Alouettes player Uzooma Okeke officially launched Heart Week, Thursday, at General Vanier Elementary School, in St. Leonard.
“I am truly happy to be able to help this organization once again this year, because they need our contribution,” said Biello. “As a professional soccer player, you need to play with a lot of heart. I feel privileged to be associated with such a great cause and I encourage everyone to do their part so that children who suffer from heart defects may one day lead normal, healthy lives.”
Launched by the Heart of Life Fund of the Montreal Children’s Hospital Foundation and the English Montreal School Board (EMSB), this program seeks to raise awareness among the general population concerning children who suffer from heart disease.
To officially launch this special week, which will take place from February 13 to 17, Biello, official spokesperson of the campaign for the third consecutive year, met more than 400 students who were dressed in red for the occasion.
General Vanier School is one of many EMSB schools where students will be outfitted in red on a specific day during Heart Week. On that day, each student with a healthy heart will be asked to bring a small donation to help a child with a «broken heart». Last year, Heart Week helped raise over $20,000, double the amount that was raised in 2004.
One child in 100 is born with a heart defect, a rate that is 10 times higher than any other pediatric illness.
The Heart of Life Fund is associated with the Montreal Children’s Hospital Foundation. It was created in 1997 by parents of children born with heart defects who had undergone, at birth or at a very young age, a complex open-heart surgery at the Montreal Children’s Hospital.
The Impact will kick off the 2006 USL D1 season on Sunday, April 23 in Florida, against the expansion-team Miami F.C. The Montreal club will play the 13th home opener of its history at Claude-Robillard Sports Complex on Sunday, May 21, against the Minnesota Thunder.
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Source : Patrick Vallée, Montreal Impact
Info : 514-328-3668 (ext. 27)
