Sporting Supports “Just Like You" Event

Who: Sporting Kansas City defender Matt Besler will join a 10-year-old cancer patient and 16-year-old cancer survivor, as well as members of Just Like You’s Board of Directors and representatives from Children’s Mercy Hospital
What: Sporting Kansas City teams up with Just Like You to support the local non-profit organization’s Film Giving Ceremony where they will donate 150 copies of movie and 60 backpacks to children with cancer, in addition to hosting a special screening of their film
When: 9:30 – 10:30 a.m. CT on Thursday, December 30th
Where: Children’s Mercy Hospital Teen Room (2401 Gillham Road, Kansas City, MO)

Sporting Kansas City defender Matt Besler will make a special appearance at Children’s Mercy Hospital on Thursday morning for an event organized by Just Like You to benefit child cancer patients. Besler will be a featured guest as Just Like You makes a donation to the oncology unit at Children’s Mercy Hospital and shows a special screening of “Just Like You – Cancer as Told by Three Children,” a 15-minute educational film produced by the local non-profit organization to help peers and family members of young patients understand the effects of cancer.

"Just Like You is so excited to partner with Sporting Kansas City and Matt Besler in helping kids who are battling cancer,” Just Like You CEO Jen Greenstreet said. “Sporting Kansas City's continuing support and leadership in our community is truly inspirational. We are changing kids' lives together."

Sporting Kansas City and Just Like You teamed up for Thursday’s gift giveaway, which includes 150 copies of the film and 60 backpacks filled with a Just Like You t-shirt, copy of the film and an educational program to accompany the movie. The donation will provide the materials for all school-aged pediatric oncology patients at Children’s Mercy Hospital in 2011.

The movie, the third produced by Just Like You Films, will be gifted to Children’s Mercy Hospital as a tool to assist in answering kids tough questions about their cancer and the circumstances surrounding their treatment.

“Just Like You - Cancer as Told by Three Children is exactly what we have been looking for to help pediatric oncology patients return to school,” Children’s Mercy Hospital Child Life Specialist Amanda Woelk said. “There is nothing in this field like it. It's groundbreaking.”

Besler, a third-year defender from Overland Park, Kansas, will join the stars of the film and representatives from Just Like You and Children’s Mercy Hospital, beginning with the presentation of the gifts at 9:30 a.m. CT on Thursday in the Teen Room at Children’s Mercy Hospital. The donation will be followed by a screening of the film at 9:45 a.m. CT and a question-and-answer session at 10 a.m. CT.

For more information about Just Like You, visit the organization’s website or Facebook page. The "Just Like You – Cancer as Told by Three Children" trailer and full-length film can also be viewed online at the Just Like You Films YouTube channel.