Only a few weeks after arriving in Georgia in 2010 for her first season with the Atlanta Beat of the Women's Professional Soccer League, McCall Zerboni sat down to sort through a pile of fan mail.

She was struck by one letter in particular.

In the note, David Bayer told Zerboni that he was looking for a role model for his three-year-old daughter, Emma, and appreciated the example Zerboni was setting as a professional soccer player. He included a photo of little Emma, whose blonde hair and blue eyes reminded Zerboni of herself as a child.

"That letter stuck out to me," said Zerboni, who now plays for the Portland Thorns. "I felt touched by the note. I read their story and I decided to respond back. We sort of became pen pals after that."

Zerboni met Bayer and Emma soon after at an Atlanta Beat event and their friendship quickly blossomed. David and his wife Carey would take Emma to Zerboni's games and join the midfielder for postgame celebrations at a nearby restaurant. When Emma turned four, Zerboni even attended her birthday party at Chuck E. Cheese. Emma called her new friend 'MZ,' while Zerboni called the young girl 'Emmers.' Zerboni was soon going over to the Bayers' house for dinner, or on trips to movies or the ballet. They became Zerboni's adopted-Atlanta family.

Over time, the strong bond led the Bayers and Zerboni to form a charity in support of breast cancer research and awareness, an issue close to Zerboni's heart. Through the MZ & Emmers Sports Bra Auction for Breast Cancer, Zerboni and the Bayers have sold 635 sports bras and raised roughly $42,000, most of which has gone to the Keep A Breast Foundation, which supports educational programs that aim to spread awareness to young people about the prevention and early detection of breast cancer.

"How our family and McCall came together was definitely a bit random," David Bayer said. "But maybe it was meant to be."

The idea for the charity began one night in 2010 while Zerboni was having dinner at the Bayers' home in Atlanta.

Bayer noticed a unique tattoo on Zerboni's shoulder, which featured purple butterfly wings encircling a pink ribbon. He asked her what it represented.

In 2009, less than a year prior, Zerboni's aunt, Stephanie Huffaker, had passed away after a battle with breast cancer. Huffaker, who lived in Los Angeles during her lifetime, was Zerboni's biggest fan. During the midfielder's time competing for UCLA, Huffaker attended all of her niece's matches.

On the day of Huffaker's funeral, Zerboni had a final at UCLA that her professor wouldn't allow her to miss. Even though she couldn't attend the funeral, her mind was focused on "Aunt Steph" for the entire day.

Later that afternoon, Zerboni walked into a tattoo parlor near UCLA's campus. The idea for the butterfly tattoo came to Zerboni instinctively. Huffaker's favorite color had been purple and the wings would remind Zerboni that her aunt would always be with her, looking down on her from above.

"It was a really, really hard thing for me," Zerboni said. "It was the first death I experienced of someone close to me. It was really hard to not have her there at my games anymore."

Bayer was touched by Zerboni's story, and he immediately started thinking about what he, Carey and Emma could do to support their new friend. A few days after the dinner, he called the midfielder and asked if she wanted to start her own breast cancer charity. She eagerly agreed.

Zerboni and Bayer wanted the charity to be unique and focused on something personal to women. Bayer also hoped the charity would allow Emma to become involved with something empowering to women from an early age.

It was Bayer who came up with the idea to sell sports bras.

"That dinner got me thinking about what we could do for her," Bayer said. "I came up with the idea of getting sports bras signed by soccer players."

Using Zerboni's connections as a professional soccer player as the jumping-off point, Zerboni and Bayer started reaching out to professional athletes and famous artists, asking them to sign and decorate sports bras. Zerboni, who by that time had moved to upstate New York to compete for the Western New York Flash, put together a sports bra decorating party with her teammates in Western New York.

When they received a batch of signed sports bras, Bayer would put them up for sale on eBay. At first, they sent the proceeds to a couple different charities, including Komen for the Cure, but later made the decision to start donating 100 percent of their proceeds to the Keep A Breast Foundation.

"We wanted to do something where we could contact people, whether it be athletes or artists, that have a platform in their community," Zerboni said. "It's been kind of a clever way to catch people's attention and, hopefully, get people involved to support this."

Since the charity's inception in 2011, Bayer has reached out to thousands of athletes, actresses, musicians and comedians and asked them to donate signed and decorated sports bras to the MZ & Emmers Sports Bra Auction for Breast Cancer.

Among the hundreds of women that have donated sports bras to the charity are former U.S. Women's National Team stars Mia Hamm and Brandi Chastain, current U.S. Women's National Team players Christie Rampone and Hope Solo, U.S. Olympic gymnasts Gabrielle Douglas and Aly Raisman, actress and fitness guru Jane Fonda and comedian Margaret Cho.

Bayer has sold the sports bras to people around the world through eBay auctions. The top-priced bra was donated by Women's Mixed Martial Arts fighter Felice Herrig and sold for $1,100.

This summer, Zerboni plans to bring her charity efforts to Portland by hosting a sports bra decorating party with her Thorns teammates. Zerboni said she hopes that most of her teammates will join her in decorating sports bras for the charity. She also hopes that she can find a way to get the passionate Thorns supporters involved as well.

"I really appreciate everyone banding together to help make this a successful thing," Zerboni said. "It's nice that I can do this and dedicate this to my aunt."

-- Jamie Goldberg | jgoldberg@oregonian.com

503-853-3761 | @jamiebgoldberg