Mario Lemieux Foundation

The Mario Lemieux Foundation was created in 1993 by hockey legend Mario Lemieux. In that year, Mario was enjoying the greatest season of his brilliant career and on pace to establish a new NHL scoring record. Then he was diagnosed with Hodgkin's disease. After a successful battle with Hodgkin's, Mario is now 22 years cancer free and his experience led him to focus on ways to assist those not so fortunate. He devotes much of his time to the Foundation raising funds to help reach the ultimate goal: a cure for cancer.

Nathalie Lemieux expanded the Foundation's scope in 2000 when she created Austin's Playroom Project following Nathalie and Mario's personal experience while caring for their profoundly premature infant son at Magee-Women's Hospital. As they were tending to young Austin, there was no place to provide a comfortable calming environment and engage his sisters Lauren and Stephanie. It was then that Nathalie devised this idea to someday raise funds for playrooms at area hospitals.

In 13 years, 28 Austin's Playrooms have opened, including a military playroom at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, MD. The playroom serves more than 75,000 active duty Marines, Sailors, and their families, as well as wounded warriors, veterans and their families in the Jacksonville area

In 2005, the Lemieux Family Center was established at the Children's Home of Pittsburgh with a $2 million gift an initiative that supports and nurtures families during the difficult process of transitioning from hospital care to life back at home.

A gift of $1.6 million to The Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh of UPMC established the Mario Lemieux Foundation Endowment for Pediatric Hematology /Oncology Research. The gift also provided funding for two new playrooms: an Austin's Playroom on the sixth floor for in-patients and The Lemieux Sibling Center in the main lobby which is dedicated to patient siblings.

The new Mario Lemieux Center for Blood Cancers, which opened in January 2012 at the Hillman Cancer Center in Pittsburgh, offers comprehensive diagnostic services, individually designed treatment plans, and long-term follow-up services to patients with leukemia, lymphoma, Hodgkin's disease, non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, multiple myeloma, and other blood malignancies. Funded in part by a $3 million gift from the Mario Lemieux Foundation, the Center features SMART (self-monitoring analysis and reporting technology) technologies in order to deliver more effective, safe, efficient, and individualized care, such as patient touch screens, patient tracking systems, and videoconferencing, all aimed at enhancing patient-centered care.

In 2014, The Mario Lemieux Lymphoma Center for Children and Young Adults was established at Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh of UPMC through a generous $2.5M gift from the Mario Lemieux Foundation. The Lemieux Lymphoma Center is the first of its kind, focusing on clinical care, laboratory research, and clinical research surrounding difficult-to-treat and rare childhood lymphomas. The Center will increase access to care and cutting-edge treatments for all childhood lymphomas, while also bringing together a critical volume of patients with rare lymphomas for research studies that can have a global impact on care.

The Mario Lemieux Celebrity Invitational, presented by Highmark Blue Cross Blue Shield, began in 1998 with the first public golf event held at The Club at Nevillewood. The event netted over $500,000 for the Mario Lemieux Foundation and was the beginning of one of the most successful annual public celebrity golf tournaments on the Celebrity Players Tour. To date, over $12 million has been raised for cancer research and patient care initiatives. In 2006, the Tournament changed to a private event held for two years at Laurel Valley Golf Club and for the last seven years at Nemacolin Woodlands Resort. The event continues to be the main fundraiser for the Foundation and attracts celebrities like Michael Jordan, Dan Marino,Michael Phelps, Jerome Bettis, Sidney Crosby, Emmitt Smith, Ben Roethlisberger, Marcus Allen, Eric Dickerson, Brett Hull and many more

Over $1,500,000 has been raised through the Mario Lemieux Fantasy Hockey Camp to benefit the Mario Lemieux Foundation

The Mario Lemieux Fantasy Hockey Camp strives to give campers an NHL hockey experience on and off the ice, as well as provide an opportunity to personally interact with some of the biggest names in hockey history. Players and coaches from previous camps include Mario Lemieux, Paul Coffey, Mark Recchi, Bill Guerin, Gary Roberts, Bryan Trottier, Larry Murphy, Theo Fleury, Rick Tocchet, Alexei Kovalev, Pierre Turgeon, Sergei Gonchar, Michel Goulet, Clark Gillies, Pierre Larouche, Curtis Joseph, Randy Hillier, Eddie Johnston, Jay Caufield and Tie Domi.

Other fundraising events hosted by the Mario Lemieux Foundation include Nathalie Lemieux�s Austin�s Playroom Project Luncheon & Fundraiser held in May of each year and The Nathalie Lemieux Ladies Open (formerly Chicks with Sticks) golf event that helps to fund maintenance costs for existing Austin�s Playrooms

The Mario Mosaic is made up of over 21,000 photos from Pittsburgh Penguins fans and Mario Lemieux Foundation supporters who generously donated to be a part of this tribute. It is located at the CONSOL Energy Center