Florida Panthers sign Canadian singer Michael Buble - for a cancer fund-raising cause
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The program is the brainchild of Panthers hockey operations president and general manager Bill Zito and his wife Julie Zito.
''Panthers on the Prowl' is a creative and really cool and uplifting way to demonstrate and show our support for those people that are suffering, so we can generate the much-needed funding to keep this fight going,' Buble said. 'Cancer touches all of us, my family, friends, yours, neighbors, everyone. I joined my buddy Bill Zito and the Florida Panthers and all of our NHL hockey community because I want to be part of the solution.'
The program formally launched in March and has been backed by famed artist Romero Britto along with NFL players — and South Florida natives — Nick Bosa and Joey Bosa, among others.
Julie Zito is a cancer survivor, Bill Zito lost his mother and sister to cancer, and the Zito family recently lost a close friend to cancer as well. The couple got the inspiration for the artwork element of the initiative from the Cows on Parade public art project in Chicago; donors to the Panthers' project can decorate their panther statuette in any way they'd like.
The team is hoping to raise at least $1 million.
'It's in all of our families and all of our friendships,' said Zito, who joined the Panthers in 2020. 'It makes me more determined not to achieve a goal for the goal's sake, but to achieve a goal to bring people together.'
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CTV News
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