COSTA MESA : Club to Help Fight Marfan Syndrome

The Tall Club of Orange County is holding its annual volleyball tournament today in Costa Mesa to raise money to fight an unusual genetic disorder that can be fatal in tall people.

The eighth annual fund-raiser at TeWinkle Memorial Park is designed to increase awareness of Marfan syndrome, which affects connective tissue and causes people to grow tall and disproportionately lanky.

Flo Hyman, a key player of the U.S. women’s volleyball team that won the Olympic silver medal in 1984, died of Marfan syndrome about eight years ago.

“We are getting a lot of help from the tall clubs to get up awareness,” Patricia Kraft, assistant director of the National Marfan Foundation, based in New York.

Registration will begin at 8:30 a.m., an hour before the first game.

Information: (714) 720-9531.