Vikings Running Back Headlines Charity Event

Hey, check your calendar, what are you doing on May 30th? It’s a Thursday night.  

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If you’re a sports fan in Minnesota, if you have plans that night, you might want to change them. If you have to work, you might want to take the night off. 

The Thielen Foundation and Minnesota Vikings Fullback CJ Ham will be hosting this year's UNRL Celebrity Softball game. The game will feature CJ Ham and his teammates in an “Offense versus Defense” softball fundraiser. 

Ham is a Duluth native and has been a member of the Vikings for the last 8 years. The two time “Pro-Bowler” has a charity based here in Minnesota called The Ham Family Scholarship Fund that supports students of color in the Duluth/Superior Wisconsin Area who want to go to college. 

This scholarship was started in 2022 by CJ and his wife Stephanie and was founded to help students who may find themselves in a similar situation as CJ did, facing financial obstacles among others. 

The funds raised at the event will go to The Ham Family Scholarship Fund and the Thielen Foundation, which has been designed to help create programs that serve, educate and inspire individuals to reach their full potential.  

Since 2018, The Thielen Foundation reports donating over Three Million dollars to support these programs and scholarships. The Thielen Foundation was started by former Viking and current Carolina Panther Adam Thielen and his wife Caitlin.  

The gates for the game will open at 4:30. There will be a homerun derby held at 6pm, and the game starts at 7pm. This charity softball game will be played at CHS Field, 360 Broadway Street in St. Paul. Tickets range from Five to Fifty dollars.  

In addition to the game and home run derby, there will be in-game giveaways, a silent auction among other fun things planned.