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Making His Mark - Professional golfer Mark Wilson teams up with Thrivent Financial for Lutherans to fight childhood cancer.
 Mark Wilson, a PGA Tour professional and Pewaukee, Wisconsin, native, loved going to Milwaukee Bucks games as a kid. One of the things he remembers about the announcers’ play-by-play at the games was frequent references to the MACC Fund. “As a kid growing up, I didn’t totally know what the MACC Fund stood for, but I heard the name over and over again,” he says.
The Midwest Athletes Against Childhood Cancer Fund, or MACC Fund, was started in 1976 by former Bucks player Jon McGlocklin and broadcaster Eddie Doucett. To date, the MACC Fund has contributed $27 million for pediatric cancer and related research.
Years later, Wilson hasn’t forgotten these early lessons in charitable giving. “When I turned professional, I always had in the back of my mind a hope that down the road we could do something for the MACC Fund.”
With the help of Thrivent Financial for Lutherans, Wilson created “Making a Mark Fore MACC” in 2004, a fund that allows him to donate a portion of his PGA Tour earnings. Between 2004 and 2005, Wilson gave $17,000. In 2006, Wilson and his wife, Amy, wanted to do something extra special, so they gave $30,000 in honor of the MACC Fund’s 30th anniversary. Over those three years, Thrivent Financial added more than $20,000 to those donations. In addition, the Southeast Wisconsin Region of Thrivent Financial sponsors Wilson annually on the PGA Tour.
Wilson hopes he can serve as an example for others to give to children’s cancer research. “I’m hoping that other athletes see that we have this opportunity to give,” he says. “We’ve been blessed with a talent—God wants us to help out the less fortunate.”
—Kara Eliason
Mark recently won his first PGA tournament. To learn more about Mark and how you can help, visit
www.thrivent.com/magazine/links.
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