The foundation created in honor of the former Major League Baseball player for the Pittsburgh Pirates, Willie Stargell, will award $50,000 in grants on Monday, April 9. Over the past nine years, the Willie Stargell Foundation has raised nearly $1 million.

Funds raised from the 9th annual Willie Stargell Celebrity Golf Tournament this past November will be given to the UNC-Chapel Hill and Duke University Transplant Outreach programs, the DaVita Emergency Fund and the Willie “Pops” Stargell Kidney Dialysis Center at New Hanover Regional Medical Center, where the awards will be presented at 1 p.m. on Monday. Stargell lost his battle to kidney disease on April 9, 2001.

A $5,000 grant awarded to UNC-Chapel Hill will create a Willie Stargell UNC Renal Fund to be used for transplant patient emergency needs, such as providing a patient with a gas card, arranging for transportation through a rental car company for a discounted rate and emergency antibiotics. Another $5,000 grant awarded to Duke University will also support transplant patients’ emergency needs there.

The foundation will give a $10,000 grant to DaVita dialysis treatment centers, where all Southeastern nephrology patients receive treatment. The social work and medical doctor on staff at each of the 10 centers will determine the emergency needs of the patients for which the funds will be used.

A $30,000 gift will be given to New Hanover Regional Medical Center’s Willie “Pops” Stargell Dialysis Center to purchase three new state-of-the-art Fresenius Hemodialysis machines, which are used for the removal of products and fluid from the blood while a patient is on dialysis. 

The 10th annual Willie Stargell Celebrity Golf Tournament will be held on November 9-11, 2012.