Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Parkland walk spotlights Rizzo
World Series champ to help in cancer fight
After “Saturday Night Live” and “The Tonight Show starring Jimmy Fallon” and a couple of weeks in Thailand, Anthony Rizzo’s victory lap is about to bring him home.
Rizzo, the Parkland native and Douglas High alumnus who starred in the Chicago Cubs’ World Series championship last month, will be back in town this week, just in time to be the guest of honor and main attraction Sunday morning at the Anthony Rizzo Family Foundation’s fifth annual Walk-Off for Cancer.
Officially, it’s a good time for a good cause. Unofficially, it’s a return for a local boy who made good and a solid excuse for hugs and hellos and long-time-no-sees.
“It’s like a big homecoming,” said Laurie Rizzo, Anthony’s mother. “Everybody in Parkland comes out, and now it’s spreading beyond Parkland.”
The excitement begins at 7:30 a.m. at Pine Trails Park in Parkland. Demand has been greater this year — as one might expect given Rizzo’s increased national profile — but even after a sold-out preregistration of 1,000 attendees, there is still room for about 300 day-of walkups.
The “walk” portion of the Walk-Off for Cancer beings around 9 a.m., after an opening ceremony that will feature various honors bestowed upon Rizzo from the town of Parkland and other groups. The 1,000-plus will make their way around the outskirts of Pine Trails Park, a 5,000-meter jaunt.
Rizzo, who still lives in Parkland most of the offseason, and his family started the Anthony Rizzo Family Foundation in 2012, four years after he beat Hodgkin’s Lymphoma as a minor leaguer.
The charity has raised $2.5 million in support of cancer research and children and their families battling the disease.
Sunday’s event alone has already raised close to $500,000.
“Everybody is more excited this year about everything,” Laurie Rizzo said. “The walk was always great, but this year it’s just amazing what’s happening.”
For more information on the event and foundation, visit rizzo44.com.