Former U-M football champion to receive Mott award for his support to the hospital

Patients, hospital staff and football enthusiasts at the University of Michigan C.S. Mott Children's Hospital and Von Voigtlander Women's Hospital will show their appreciation for former U-M football standout, 1997 Heisman trophy winner and current Green Bay Packer Charles Woodson by proclaiming Thursday, April 28, as Woodson Day.

Woodson will accept the first Mott Champions for Children Award at 10:30 a.m. at MCHC Auditorium at Mott Children's Hospital, followed by words of appreciation from Valerie Castle, M.D., Chair of the Department of Pediatrics and Communicable Diseases.

Woodson will then visit patient floors and pass out Mott bears wearing Charles Woodson T-shirts. Patient room doors will be decorated with Charles Woodson Fatheads and patients will lunch on a fan-fare menu that includes stadium franks, popcorn, cotton candy and pretzels.

Woodson and former Mott patient Max Merget, 16, will kick off Charles Woodson Day the night before. Together, they will be throwing the first pitch at the 7:05 p.m. Detroit Tigers game on Wednesday. Max Merget has been featured in Michigan Difference campaign ads.

Woodson has played an important role at Mott Hospital for several years, visiting patients and families, helping the hospital raise money and personally donating to the Champions for Children campaign to build the new Mott Children's Hospital, which opens in November.

Woodson's most recent $2 million gift to the hospital will support The Charles Woodson Clinical Research Fund. The fund will advance the work of researchers doing early-stage work to help children with life-threatening illnesses that include cancer, heart disease, kidney disorders and autism. The gift will also support the construction of the new U-M C.S. Mott Children's Hospital and Von Voigtlander Women's Hospital, where the lobby will be named in his honor.

The new $754 million, 1.1 million square foot hospital opens in November and will feature a 12-story inpatient tower, a nine-story outpatient tower, a rooftop helipad, and 348 beds when fully open.