Los Angeles Kings captain/forward Dustin Brown continues HIT TRACKER for the 2011-12 NHL season, and for each on-ice hit, Brown will donate $50 to the Newborn and Infant Critical Care Unit at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles. He finished the season with 293 hits for a donation of $14,650.







“This is something that hits very close to home” said Brown, who with his wife Nicole, has three sons, Jake, Mason and Cooper. “We want to help other families that are going through what we went through with Mason, our second son. We know that Children’s Hospital Los Angeles provides the most advanced care for critically ill fetuses, newborns, infants and their mothers







“Dustin Brown and his family have been friends and supporters of the hospital for four years,” said Dr. Istvan Seri, Director, Center for Fetal and Neonatal Medicine, Head, USC Division of Neonatal Medicine. “We’re so proud to have his commitment to our Newborn and Infant Critical Care Unit where the most vulnerable of babies are cared for. I’m sure, as Dustin readies to add to his family, that he is especially sensitive to the needs of these infants. “Support like we are getting from Dustin makes it possible for our faculty and staff at Children's Hospital Los Angeles to continue to provide family centered, state-of-the-art care for our little patients in the NICCU who often have the most complex and serious medical and surgical conditions before and after they have been born. We appreciate his support and generosity and wish him and the team the best for this season. We could never adequately express how this gift will impact our services, and the lives of these babies who need them.”







In recent years, Brown donated $50 a hit to KABOOM! That relationship raised $60,000 and culminated with a special playground build in Carson in September 2010.







Brown, who currently leads the Kings (and ranks third in the NHL) with 195 hits, last year finished third in the league with 300 hits after compiling 287 hits during the 2009-10 season. He won the NHL Foundation Player Award last season for this dedication and commitment to the community and has received the Kings’ Community Service Award each of the last three years.