RED BULLS PARTICIPATE IN MDA EVENT

New York Red Bull players Chris Leitch and John Wolyniec participated in the MDA's 11th annual Muscle Team event, held Tuesday, January 8 at Chelsea Piers. The event was enjoyed by hundreds of attendees from organizations located throughout the greater NY metropolitan area.

Leitch and Wolyniec joined professional athletes from several other Metro New York franchises for this special event. The Red Bull duo, along with all the professional athletes in attendance, was teamed up with a Muscle Team Buddy.

Muscle Team is a sports dinner and auction to raises much-needed funds for the MDA. This fantastic social event has netted well over $5 million since its inception in 1998 and is targeted to raise over $1,000,000 in 2008. The MDA Muscle Team® is made up of top athletes from each of the Metro New York sports teams.

Now celebrating its 11th year, MDA's Muscle Team® is a high profile sports dinner where professional athletes join together to put their muscle behind the search to find treatments and cures for neuromuscular diseases. Each athlete is paired with a MDA Buddy, a local child living with muscular dystrophy.

The Muscular Dystrophy Association is a voluntary health agency -- a dedicated partnership between scientists and concerned citizens aimed at conquering neuromuscular diseases that affect more than a million Americans.

MDA combats neuromuscular diseases through programs of worldwide research, comprehensive medical and community services, and far-reaching professional and public health education. With national headquarters in Tucson, MDA has more than 200 offices across the country, sponsors 230 hospital-affiliated clinics and supports nearly 400 research projects around the world.

MDA supports more research on neuromuscular diseases than any other private-sector organization in the world. MDA scientists are in the forefront of gene therapy research and have uncovered the genetic defects responsible for several forms of muscular dystrophy, Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease, a form of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS, or Lou Gehrig's disease), childhood spinal muscular atrophy, and several other neuromuscular conditions.

The Association's comprehensive service program includes medical examinations, flu shots, support groups, MDA summer camps for youngsters and assistance with purchase of wheelchairs and leg braces.

For more information on the MDA's "Muscle Team", please visit www.nymuscleteam.org.