West Bend Mutual Insurance Co.’s employees and independent insurance agents have raised $1.15 million for the Midwest Athletes Against Childhood Cancer (MACC) Fund, the company announced.
Donations were raised at a Sept. 22 event, spearheaded by president and chief executive officer Kevin Steiner and held at the West Bend Country Club, the Washington County Golf Course and the Washington County Fair Grounds.
Steiner said the company exceeded its goal of raising $1 million.
It was the eighth time West Bend Mutual hosted its biennial event, which has raised $3.7 million for the MACC Fund to date.
“The MACC Fund is very special to West Bend,” Steiner said. “Throughout the past 14 years, our event has grown unbelievably. The money we raise helps doctors, nurses, researchers, and many others find treatments that are more tolerable and safer for children with cancer and blood disorders. And it helps them in their search for a cure.”
The MACC Fund was founded in 1976 by Jon McGlocklin, a Milwaukee Bucks player-turned-announcer, and then Bucks play-by-play announcer Eddie Doucette, whose two-year-old son Brett had been diagnosed with cancer.
In 2019, the fund pledged $25 million to advance medical discoveries at the Medical College of Wisconsin and Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin related to pediatric cancer and blood disorders.
“As children throughout the Midwest fight cancer and related blood disorders, it’s generous supporters like West Bend and their equally generous agents, business partners, and associates who help bring hope to these kids and their families,” said MACC Fund president and CEO Becky Pinter.
Also this week, the MACC Fund announced it has received a significant gift from Milwaukee Bucks shooting guard Wesley Matthews, representing the largest personal gift from a professional athlete in the organization’s history. The amount of the gift from Matthews was not disclosed.
