The ANNIKA Foundation – golf Hall-of-Famer Annika Sorenstam’s charitable organization – has partnered with the Sun SafeTee program to help promote sun protection education and skin cancer awareness to golfers.
Sun SafeTee program initiatives include hosting educational seminars, distributing sunscreen samples and sun protection literature, and offering informational hand-outs to golf tournament attendees. Skin cancer screenings are also made available to members of allied partner associations like The First Tee, American Junior Golf Association (AJGA), Golf Coaches Association of America (GCAA) and Southern California Golf Association (SCGA).
Program representatives will be invited to speak with ANNIKA Invitational competitors about how junior golfers can reduce their risks of skin cancer and premature aging. Sun protection literature will be posted on www.annikafoundation.org and distributed at the Foundation’s global schedule of junior tournaments as well as at the ANNIKA Academy, Annika’s state-of-the-art golf instruction facility at Reunion Resort in Orlando, Florida. Annika will also tape a video testimonial for Sun SafeTee to use on its website, www.sunsafetee.org
“We’re honoured to forge a relationship with Annika and her Foundation, as she is one of golf’s greatest and most-respected champions,” says Sun SafeTee founder Mark Wishner, an avid golfer and skin cancer survivor. “The ANNIKA Foundation’s mission to help children live healthy, active lifestyles is a tenet shared by our program as well.”
“The Sun SafeTee program’s focus on junior and collegiate golfers ideally complements the holistic approach we take to help them reach their full potential on and off the course,” says Tommy Tangtiphaiboontana, Global Golf Director of the ANNIKA Foundation. “Protection from the sun’s UV rays is vitally important to golfers given they have a higher risk of developing skin cancer due to the amount of time they spend outdoors.”
This year 3 million-plus skin cancers will be diagnosed in the United States, more than breast cancer, lung cancer and prostate cancer combined. Although skin cancer is the most preventable form of the disease, approximately 12,000 people die from melanoma (the most virulent type) annually.
Sun SafeTee www.sunsafetee.org
ANNIKA Foundation www.annikafoundation.org