Stay in the Game Campaign to Raise Awareness of Prostate Cancer Among Officials

On the heels of our successful BLUE for Pink: Umpires Against Breast Cancer campaign, we decided to continue our community outreach efforts in a way that could involve officials in every sport, in support of a cause that directly effects their health.

While researching potential programs to raise awareness of heart disease, obesity and overall health and fitness, we came across a statistic that stopped us in our tracks: one in six men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer. That makes prostate cancer the most common non-skin cancer in America, and since our customer base is mostly men, we knew we'd found our cause.

In addition to being a significant health concern for the majority of our customers, almost all of the men on our staff, including myself, are at or approaching the age where guidelines suggest men should begin regular prostate screening. So prostate cancer awareness is an important issue not only for our customers but for our staff as well. 

EDUCATION AND AWARENESS
Once we made the decision to focus on prostate cancer awareness, we chose to name our campaign "Stay in the Game," to emphasize the importance of approaching this as a health and wellness issue to your career as an official. So our goal is to educate and raise awareness so you can "stay in the game" with a discussion with your doctor about your risk and early detection of prostate cancer through regular screening rather than be sidelined by it.


FUNDRAISING
As for fundraising, we reached out to the Prostate Cancer Foundation, which baseball fans will recognize for its partnership with MLB and it's Father's Day prostate cancer awareness efforts, including the Home Run Challenge.

We are offering blue (the designated color for prostate cancer awareness) wristbands and blue whistles--similar to the pink items we offer for breast cancer awareness--and donating part or all of the proceeds to the Prostate Cancer Foundation.

What better month to launch this campaign than in September, which is National Prostate Cancer Awareness Month? We plan to continue the campaign into next spring and perhaps beyond.

SPREAD THE MESSAGE
In addition to offering blue awareness items for sale, we have created a Stay in the Game page on Facebook, where we plan to share information and hope to hear from prostate cancer survivors within the officiating community about their experiences

We have also created informational literature about the campaign that is being packaged with every order we ship, so look out for that with your next order, then share that information with your crew and your association to spread the message further!

Visit www.ump-attire.com/stayinthegame to learn more about the campaign, and "Like" us on Facebook to get regular updates on prostate cancer research, screening guidelines, treatment options and more.

Make the right call and "Stay in the Game"!