South Side boxing event aims to find cure for children’s brain tumor

CHICAGO (WGN) — It’s just about time to get ready to rumble for a good cause on the city’s South Side.

Dan Letz is the owner and operator of Letz Box Chicago—a pugilistic palace in Mount Greenwood. For the last several months, he’s been training a good-hearted, fleet-footed field of warriors who are fighting to help find a cure for Diffuse Intrinsic Pontine Glioma (DIPG), which is a brain tumor that can develop in the brainstem.

“It’s horrific. It affects mainly children,” Katie Gaskin said. “It’s a tumor that grows within the brain stem, specifically in the ponds, and when a child is diagnosed with this, right now, they’re really only given radiation as a treatment option and usually eight to 12 months to live.”

Gaskin’s son, Anthony, was 7 years old when he died from DIPG, just 19 months after his diagnosis. In memory of Anthony, who Gaskin described as an old soul who loved the Chicago Cubs, she started the Anthony’s Avengers DIPG Foundation.

Letz and Gaskin have partnered to host an event on Friday, June 13 at Saint Rita of Cascia High School in benefit of Anthony’s Avengers and their mission to find a cure. Starting at 7 p.m., the St. Rita Mustang’s football field will be transformed into a boxing ring under the Friday night lights of a different sort.

19-year-old Julian “J-Dog” Guzman, a University of Illinois-Chicago student studying architecture, is one of those boxers training under Letz who aim to lend a hand, while also landing a punch.

“I’m feeling good. I’m ready to put on a performance,” Guzman said. “I’ve been training hard. I’m ready to put on in the ring.”

All money raised by Anthony’s Avengers during the event will go to DIPG cure research. For more information on Anthony’s Avengers and the fight to cure DIPG, visit the organization’s website: https://anthonysavengers.org/