Why I got involved
Matthew Hastings – Player, Westfield Little League
My name is Matthew Hastings, and I live in Westfield, Mass. In the past two years I have played baseball on an all-star team that has played in the Jimmy Fund Little League Tournament. I really like doing this because I get to have fun playing my favorite sport and raise money for cancer care and research.
Matthew Hastings (right), Jimmy Fund Little League player for Westfield, Mass., with comedy legend Bill Cosby at the 2008 WEEI/NESN Jimmy Fund Radio-Telethon
My Uncle Henry died of cancer when I was a year old, so I didn't get to know him. Dana-Farber treated him and with more money maybe they can keep other kids' uncles from dying.
When I went to the Jimmy Fund's New Stars for Young Stars event in Boston two years ago, I got to meet some of the Red Sox players! I also met a girl named Andrea who had cancer and had no hair from her medicine. I decided to grow my hair long so it could be cut and made into a wig. Kids with cancer get these wigs so that nobody makes fun of them because they lost their own hair. The Jimmy Fund arranged for me to have my hair cut on the WEEI/NESN Jimmy Fund Radio Telethon last summer where I even got to meet Bill Cosby!
I hope to see you at this year's Jimmy Fund Little League Tournament. I will be the boy from Westfield with the long hair. I am growing it again so another kid with cancer can have some hair!
