When we first started this blog, one of the first things I wanted to explore was any charity initiatives we could promote. Marketing Manager (and the guy here who seems to be plugged into everything with the hobby) Chris Carlin immediately directed me to Tim Danielson, who is organizing the Yankee Stadium Legacy Charity Drive.

Now, for those who may be unaware, Upper Deck put out a monumental set last year to honor the closing of the old Yankee Stadium. The set of 6,661 cards features one for each game played at the stadium, and these cards were inserted into different products in 2008. Collectors who put together the full set would win a Yankee Dream Trip (featuring an opportunity to meet Derek Jeter himself), providing plenty of incentive to tackle this project.

For Tim Danielson however, there was an even bigger goal to achieve. He explained, “The online trading community The Bench tries to do a charity project or donation every year. In the past few years we had some active members on The Bench lose their battles with cancer.  We knew we wanted to do something to honor the memory of those members. There were a lot of members on the site saying that they were going to attempt the Yankee Stadium Legacy set we first heard about it.” From that point, it was a natural connection to collect the full set as a group, and then auction it off with the proceeds going towards The Jimmy V Foundation for Cancer Research.

Seems like a huge task for sure, but the collector community is very strong, and this has become a great project that many are vested in. “Even as we started the Yankee Stadium Legacy charity drive in January of 2008, I was totally confident that we would be able to complete the set. The committee knew then that this would probably be a multi-year project and has remained committed to this goal.“

For Tim, the cause became more personal last year, but that just motivated him to pursue it even more. “In July of 2008, my father was diagnosed with stage 4 Glioblastoma Multiforme, terminal brain cancer. Now more than ever I have a personal vested interested in seeing this project completed. To paraphrase Jimmy V from his famous ESPY speech, ‘Cancer research may not save my life (or my father’s) but it may save our children’s lives.’”

The charity is driven strictly by donations and is a community oriented project, so if you’d like to contribute to this cause, click here for more information. You can also email Tim personally at [email protected].

Other resources:
Facebook
MySpace
The Bench’s Trading Thread

We’ll be keeping tabs on The Bench as they move towards this goal, especially once they complete the set. It’s a fun project for a great cause, so check it out!

You can also click here to donate directly to The Jimmy V Foundation right now!