The Florida Panthers have signed Wayne Gretzky, Martina Navratilova, Michael Buble, Dustin Johnson and the Miami Heat to participate in a unique project.
MIAMI — For their latest project, the Florida Panthers have signed Wayne Gretzky, Martina Navratilova, Michael Bublé, Dustin Johnson and the Miami Heat.
And they were armed with brushes, not clubs.
The Panthers—hours before the Miami Marlins' outdoor Winter Classic game against the New York Rangers—unveiled a couple dozen panther sculptures, each painted in a unique style and now up for auction with hopes of raising $1 million for cancer research.
Gretzky commissioned a sculpture depicting some of his statistics, Johnson created a sculpture depicting a scene from Augusta National, Bublé's sculpture features braille rhinestones, the NBA Heat commissioned a pair of sculptures with some of the team's themes, artist Romero Britto also painted one, and Navratilova technically didn't paint hers—she dipped tennis balls in paint and then served them to the panther, creating a splash of different polka-dot colors.
“To be able to reach out and make those connections and have those people say, 'Sure,' what a gift that was,” Panthers general manager and president of hockey operations Bill Zito said. “It's so neat.”
About $700,000 has already been raised, Zito said. The fundraising idea—Panthers on the Hunt, as they call it—is based on the Chicago art project Cows on Parade. Zito and his wife Julie are co-chairs of the Panther Project; she is a breast cancer survivor, and Zito has lost several relatives to the disease.
“It was my wife Julie’s idea,” Zito said. “And we were living in Chicago during the Cow Parade, and then Romero Britto said we should put them up for auction. I can't take any of the credit for that.”
Many of the panthers were on display at LoanDepot Park on Friday, where they were seen by the approximately 35,000 fans who attended the Winter Classic.
“There are tears and smiles,” Zito said. “And then you think, you know what, there's a reason why everyone is busy. There's a reason why everyone has given their time and their talent. And it's because it works, and it's the right thing.”
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