Christian McCaffrey fulfills legacy of a young Panthers fan who died of cancer. Logan Hale’s room served as a shrine to Carolina Panthers football. He’d filled his drawers with the team’s gear and plastered his walls with posters of the team’s players. He hammered in construction nails to hoist jerseys as decoration
A jar stood in that room, filled to the brim with coins. Hale filled it with money anytime he received gifts from friends. He’d been saving up to buy video game consoles, not for him, but for kids like him who were stuck in hospitals. Hale died from leukemia in December 2021 at the age of 13, but his idol has been instrumental in helping his parents and brother carry his goals through. McCaffrey and his foundation partnered with the Hale family to launch The Logan Project, an organization that looks to give pediatric patients an outlet through gaming. In a ceremony Monday at Atrium Health Levine Children’s Hospital, McCaffrey gave out nine video game consoles to the kids in the hospital. He, alongside Panthers teammates Shaq Thompson and Jeremy Chinn, then played games with the patients.
He’d play a litany of games with them but quickly realized that many of the kids in the hospitals with him weren’t afforded that same privilege. Carolina Panthers Jeremy Chinn, right, greets Zac Barnett, 14, at Atrium Levine Children’s Hospital in Charlotte, N.C., on Monday, July 18, 2022.
Christian McCaffrey and Christian McCaffrey Foundation commemorated ‘The Logan Project,’ presenting the first nine gaming consoles for pediatric patients to Atrium Health Levine Children’s Hospital and delivering on the dream of Logan Hale, who lost his battle with childhood cancer in late 2021. Khadejeh Nikouyeh [email protected] “He frequently said to us, ‘Wouldn’t it be great mom and dad, if we could put together some money for a foundation that would (buy) kids who were suffering their own Xboxes and Playstations?’ ” David Hale, Logan’s father, said.