LAKE FOREST, Ill. – Bears fans can purchase tickets to attend a luncheon at Maryville Academy in Des Plaines on April 7 honoring cornerback Charles Tillman as the team’s recipient of the Ed Block Courage Award.

The prestigious award is presented to one player on all 32 NFL teams who best exemplifies a commitment to sportsmanship and courage and serves as an inspiration in the locker room.

Charles Tillman joined the Bears in 2003 as a second-round draft pick from Louisiana-Lafayette.

Award recipients, who are voted on by their teammates, symbolize professionalism, great strength and dedication, and they are considered community role models.

Tillman no doubt won the award because of the strength, faith and perseverance he displayed during a personal crisis in 2008. His infant daughter, Tiana, needed and received a heart transplant to survive. 

Tiana was suffering from dilated cardiomyopathy, which causes the heart to weaken and enlarge, disabling the heart’s pumping system. It’s a condition that affects roughly 1 in 100,000 children in the United States.

After experiencing the ordeal with his daughter, Tillman changed the focus of the foundation he had created in 2005 from education to improving the lives of critically and chronically ill children throughout Greater Chicago by providing daily support and life-changing experiences.

Some of the interactive programs being orchestrated by the Charles Tillman Cornerstone Foundation include “Charles' Locker,” “Field of Dreams” and “Mothers’ Champagne Brunch.”

"Charles' Locker" provides ill children and their families with access to notebook computers, DVD players, portable Play Station game systems, digital cameras and MP3 players while undergoing recovery and treatment. The "Field of Dreams" program provides ill children and their families with magical memories by fulfilling sports-related wishes and vacation dreams. The “Mothers’ Champagne Brunch” is hosted each year to honor the mothers of ill children for the sacrifices they make in caring for their child. 

Through the Bears “Home Team Hand-Off” ticket donation program, Tillman has also purchased a block of season tickets and donated them to the Gift of Hope Organ & Tissue Donor Network. The tickets are distributed to families of children who are either transplant recipients or are on the waiting list for a transplant, giving them the opportunity to experience a Bears game at Soldier Field.

Ed Block was a long-time head trainer with the Baltimore Colts who was a pioneer in his field. The Ed Block Courage Award Foundation promotes the prevention of child abuse by raising awareness of the epidemic and assisting agencies that provide for the care and treatment of abused children in communities throughout the NFL.

Tickets to the luncheon cost $50 and can be purchased by calling (847) 294-1982.