Celebrities from the sports world donated their time in Villa Rica on Monday for a powerful cause.
Jeff and Kim Dollar hosted their annual “Birdies for Braxton” celebrity golf tournament at Mirror Lake Golf Course to raise money for the Braxton Dollar Foundation.
The foundation is a nonprofit that aims to help families with their everyday expenses while they have a child fighting cancer. Without nonprofits like theirs, the Dollars say they would have likely lost everything along with their child.
The Dollar family named the foundation and golf tournament after their son, Braxton Dollar, who passed away at the age of 6 following an 18-month long battle with diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma (DIPG), which is type of brain tumor found in the brain stem, according to the National Cancer Institute.
Monday’s golf tournament featured a long list of sports celebrities who volunteered their time, including multiple Atlanta Braves and University of Georgia standouts.
The celebrity guests at the event included the following:
Marquis Grissom (Atlanta Braves), Brian Jordan (Atlanta Braves), Glen Hubbard (Atlanta Braves), Mark Wohlers (Atlanta Braves), Steve Woodard (Milwaukee Brewers), Nick Green (Atlanta Braves), Anthony Smith (Pittsburgh Steelers), Johnny Estrada (Atlanta Braves), Ron “Papa Jack” Jackson (Boston Red Sox), Musa Smith (UGA, Baltimore Ravens), Tim Worley (UGA, Pittsburgh Steelers), Dwight Stone (Pittsburgh Steelers), Joey Hamilton (San Diego Padres), Earnest “Smokey” Hodge (Auburn, Baltimore Ravens), Russ Branyan (Cleveland Indians), Lance Cormier (Atlanta Braves) Chris Hammond (Atlanta Braves), Fred Banks (Denver Broncos), and Fred Marion (New England Patriots).
“I met (Jeff) Dollar a couple years ago and had the opportunity to see his son, and with what they went through during those challenging times, I almost feel obligated to be here,” Grissom said. “What these guys are doing with this foundation is going to help not just his family, but a whole bunch of other families going forward.”
Grissom continued, “Any time we can get a bunch of guys together for a great cause that means so much to so many people, that’s what we should be doing.”
For a greater glimpse at the foundation and the golf tournament, be on the lookout for an extended story and photos in the weekend Southern Spice section of the Times-Georgian.