Look To The Stars News: Special Olympics

Chris Evert Charity Tennis Event Attracts Celebrities

Mon, 17 Nov 2008 11:30:00 -0000

The 2008 Chris Evert/Raymond James Pro-Celebrity Tennis Classic was held at the Delray Beach Tennis Center, November 1-2nd, and once again proved to be a raging success – so much so, that tennis legend Chris Evert has now raised close to $20 million for charities!

The event kicked off with a Pro-Am at the Boca Raton Resort & Club tennis courts and attracted some new faces this year. Comedian Billy Crystal and 12-time Olympic medalist Dara Torres joined regulars such as Chevy Chase, Stone Phillips, Maeve Quinlan, Bud Collins, Vince Spadea, Alan Thicke, Jana Novotna, Gavin Rossdale, and Jon Lovitz.

Evert created the fundraising event to fight drug abuse and assist neglected and abused children in South Florida.

“What these treatment centers do is they get these women or men back into the mainstream of life, back on track, whether they’re gonna work, whether they want to go to school, whether they want to be great parents, whatever, it gets them back into mainstream of living,” says Evert. “Circumstances in life sometimes get you to a very low and a lot of people in the world, that’s how they reacted by turning to drugs and its not something that you should look down on and snub, it can happen to anybody.”

Chris Evert Charities partners with The Ounce of Prevention Fund of Florida, a public -private partnership administered with the State of Florida, to raise money for needy programs which otherwise would not be fully-funded by the State. The Ounce of Prevention Fund matches moneys raised through the Chris Evert/Bank of America Pro-Celebrity Tennis Classic.

While Chris has been busy with her own work at Chris Evert Charities, she also donates her time and efforts to other worthwhile programs including: The Special Olympics, The March Of Dimes, The Martina Navratilova Youth Foundation, The Michael Bolton Charities, The American AIDS Foundation, The Elton John AIDS Foundation, The Red Cross and The U.S. Olympic Ski Team.

Love Ride 2008 Attracts The Big Names

Wed, 12 Nov 2008 13:30:00 -0000

Written by Tim Saunders

20,000 motorcyclists from across the U.S. and around the world rode in the 25th Annual Love Ride late last month and raised over US$1 million for Southern California-based charities.

The event – which was hosted by Jay Leno and featured celebrity riders such as Gene Simmons, Peter Fonda, Robert Patrick, Rutger Hauer, Larry Hagman, Mark-Paul Harry Gosselaar, Michael Trucco (Battlestar Galactica), and Carmine Giovinazzo (CSI: NY) – culminated in a concert featuring the Foo Fighters, ZZ Top, and members of Velvet Revolver.

The annual Love Ride – held along the West Coast of the US from Glendale to Pomona – has raised over $21 million since it was launched in 1984, and is now one of the biggest one-day motorcycle events in the world. Beneficiaries of this year’s event included the Muscular Dystrophy Association, Autism Speaks, Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, Reading By 9 Child Literacy Initiative, Providence Saint Joseph Foundation, Catholic Big Brothers/Big Sisters, Special Olympics of Southern California, Frostig Center, Scleroderma Foundation, Glendale Community College, Rett Syndrome Foundation, Optimist Youth Homes & Family Centers, Diabetes Institute for Immunology and Transplantation, Friends of Castaic Lake, and the United Mitochondrial Disease Foundation.

Tracy McGrady Foundation Benefits From Donation

Thu, 13 Mar 2008 12:06:53 -0000

Written by Delinda Lombardo

Tracy McGrady entered the National Basketball Association in 1996 as the third youngest player ever drafted out of high school. Since then, he’s nabbed seven NBA All-Star awards and currently plays for the Houston Rockets. But it’s T-Mac’s efforts at spreading the love that has this writer giving him an ‘off-the-court’ All-Star award.

Since it’s inception about ten years ago, the Tracy McGrady Foundation has made substantial contributions to several charities and non-profit organizations, including the Special Olympics and the Boys’ and Girls’ Clubs of America. McGrady also plays Santa every year during his annual Holiday Toy Drive before bringing the kids to Toys R Us for a giant shopping spree; he loves to feed the elderly at Thanksgiving; he holds celebrity softball games to raise money for needy kids; he has renovated and reconstructed two learning centres at elementary schools in Houston; and he recently teamed up with The Enough Project to get a firsthand look at the genocide in Darfur

“Once you know what is happening over there,” said McGrady, “you’ll understand and will want to make a difference.”

McGrady’s stab at making a difference comes via a documentary he shot while visiting the Sudan. “I can’t wait for to you see the film, hear their stories, and know how easy it is to help,” he wrote on his website. “These are our brothers, our sisters, our children. They are in need and what if, just what if, we all do a small part to help. All those little things can help the people, and might help end this genocide.”

McGrady also runs one of the most popular basketball camps for kids, the T-Mac’s Approach Basketball Camp, which runs from June 23-27 in Texas.

“It is not just basketball that the kids are learning at our camp,” said T-Mac. “They leave with an appreciation of good sportsmanship and the knowledge that with dedication and commitment you can accomplish your goals”.

McGrady’s efforts seem contagious, and this week Wealth Masters International became the ‘Community Leadership Sponsor’ after donating $10,000 to his Camp.

“There is nothing more rewarding than knowing that you have positively influenced the life of a child, and we are proud to be able to support a charity that allows us to see and experience first-hand the positive reinforcement these kids receive through Tracy’s basketball camp,” said CEO Kip Herriage when asked why he chose to lead the initiative in Wealth Master’s sponsorship of the camp. “I can tell you that spending quality time with a person of Tracy’s integrity will have a positive impact on their lives.”

Ensuring that all children have the opportunity to attend, Wealth Masters has also unveiled an initiative that will allow 3 children between the ages of 8 and 13 years old to write an essay on why they should be selected to attend the camp this year. Each child that is chosen will receive round trip airfare as well as room and board.

“I began this process knowing that I could utilize my corporate partner and celebrity status to bring needed funds and attention to programs across the country,” said McGrady. “I want to thank you for your participation, commitment and support of my summer basketball camp program. I am honored to have Wealth Masters International as our Community Leadership Sponsor. My basketball camp is important to me and I appreciate sponsors like yourself that support our efforts.”

Stars Compete For Charity On Celebrity Apprentice

Thu, 17 Jan 2008 10:26:17 -0000

Written by Crystal A. Johnson

16 million people tuned into the first episode of Donald Trump’s Celebrity Apprentice on January 3, a show in which celebrities work to win money for the charity of their choice. Critics may argue it is a publicity stunt to boost ratings, but when $250,000 is at stake to go to a good cause, all is fair in ratings and charity.

The show marks the 7th series of reality television show The Apprentice, and features a return to the original format of a male team versus a female team. The men’s team named themselves Hydra, and the women have chosen the name Empresario.

Every week, the money earned on a project goes to the team leader’s charity. In the first episode, actor Stephen Baldwin headed the winning team, and the breast cancer charity named for his mother – the Carol M. Baldwin Cancer Research Fund – was the first charity to reap the benefits of male star power. Baldwin proudly presented a check in excess on $69,000 to the charity. His celebrity teammates include KISS bass player Gene Simmons, Heavyweight Boxing Champion Lennox Lewis, country singer Trace Adkins, America/Britain’s Got Talent judge Piers Morgan, Ultimate Fighting Champion Tito Ortiz, and Sopranos star Vincent Pastore.

The female celebrities have lost two challenges and two teammates – former Playboy Playmate Tiffany Fallon and Olympic Gold Medalist Nadia Comanechi. The remaining competitors include actress Marilu Henner, former supermodel Carol Alt, Olympic Gold medalist Jennie Lynch, Elemundo executive Nely Galan, and infamous veteran Apprentice star Omarosa.

The charities the celebrities are fighting for are:

Nadia Comanechi- Special Olympics
Jenni Finch- The Breast Cancer Research Foundation
Marilu Henner- The Physician’s Committee For Responsible Medicine
Carol Alt- The Tony Alt Memorial Foundation
Lennox Lewis-The Muhammad Ali Parkinson Center
Gene Simmons-The Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation
Piers Morgan- The Intrepid Fallen Heroes Fund
Stephen Baldwin- The Carol M. Baldwin Cancer Research Fund
Tiffany Falon- The Walter Reed Society
Tito Ortiz- The St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital
Vincent Pastore- The Lustgarten Foundation for Pancreatic Cancer Research
Nely Galan- Count Me In
Trace Adkins – the Food Allergy and Anaphylaxis Network (FAAN)
Omarosa – Tomorrow’s Aeronautic Museum

Bono's Fishy T-Shirt Benefits African Farmers

Mon, 07 Jan 2008 09:41:01 -0000

Written by Tim Saunders

Bono has designed a new T-shirt for charity, joining a host of other celebrities in an on-going and major charity campaign.

The 47-year-old singer from U2 is the 25th artist to design a shirt for Hard Rock Café’s Signature Series clothing line, an initiative started in 1990 as a way for musicians to raise money for charities of their choice. Sales from the shirts have raised over $6 million for a variety of causes.

Bono’s creation, available for $26 from the Hard Rock website, features his stylized drawing of a fish soaring past the moon, and is adorned with the words “Fish Can Fly”, as well as his signature. 15% of the proceeds will go to the Wildlife Conservation Society’s Conservation Cotton initiative – a scheme designed to lift African farmers out of poverty by providing education on proper land management, organic cotton growing techniques, and wildlife conservation. The shirts will also support the trade for aid ethos of EDUN, the conscious consumerism fashion label founded by Bono and his wife in 2005, by being made from 100% African cotton and manufactured by African garment workers.

Other artists to have designed shirts for the initiative in the past include Green Day, who raised money for Amnesty International’s Campaign To Save Darfur, Shakira who chose to benefit Pies Descalzos, Ozzy Osbourne for the Sharon Osbourne Colon Cancer Program, Bruce Springsteen for World Hunger Year, Eric Clapton for the Crossroads Centre, Peter Gabriel for Witness, Sting and Elton John for the Elton John AIDS Foundation, Michael Stipe for Artists for a New South Africa, Don Henley for the Walden Woods Project, John Mellencamp for the Nordoff-Robbins Music Therapy Foundation, and Stevie Nicks for the Special Olympics. Carlos Santana and Aerosmith have also contributed designs. Many of these shirts are still available from the Hard Rock website.

Bono’s “Fish Can Fly” is more than just a phrase – it is a message that tomorrow can be better than today.

A Very Special Christmas

Mon, 24 Dec 2007 09:14:56 -0000

Written by Tim Saunders

Christmas may already be upon us, and Santa may at this very moment be squeezing his way down your chimney, but there is still time for one last fix of Christmas shopping.

Jon Bon Jovi, Sheryl Crow, U2, and Eric Clapton are just some of the stars to be featured on the first ever DVD collection from the “A Very Special Christmas” holiday music series to benefit the Special Olympics.

“A Very Special Christmas – 20th Anniversary Music Video Collection” is out now, and is the latest release in the series that has already raised more than $100 million for Special Olympics programs around the world.

“A Very Special Christmas is a fitting way to spread holiday cheer,” said Timothy Shriver, Special Olympics chairman. “But more importantly, this gift will help bring the joy of Special Olympics to many more children and adults with intellectual disabilities, providing them the chance of a new life – a life of participation, pride, friendship, and joy.”

The project was launched in 1987, when record producer Jimmy Iovine decided a Christmas album would be a suitable memorial to his father. His wife Vicki suggested that the album benefit the Special Olympics, which she was working for as a volunteer. Bobby Shriver, son of Special Olympics founder Eunice Shriver, signed on as producer, and A&M Records backed the project with an agreement to cover all costs.

Over the years, A Very Special Christmas has attracted a plethora of heavy-weight artists, and past releases have featured songs donated by Madonna, Bruce Springsteen, the Smashing Pumpkins, Stevie Nicks, Enrique Iglesias, Aretha Franklin, Tom Petty, and Reba McEntire.

“I am full of admiration for the many artists who have helped us,” said Eunice Shriver. “It’s a great tribute that these men and women say to themselves ‘I’ll use my talent to help others’.”

The full list of songs on the 20th Anniversary Music Video Collection is:

Run DMC – Christmas In Hollis
U2 – Christmas (Baby Please Come Here)
No Doubt – Oi To The World
John Mellencamp – I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus
Sting – Gabriel’s Message
Jon Bon Jovi – Please Come Home For Christmas
Vanessa Williams – What Child Is This?
Eric Clapton – Christmas Tears
Tracy Chapman – Oh Holy Night
Sheryl Crow – Run Rudolph Run
Wyclef Jean – Little Drummer Boy/Hot Hot Hot
Stevie Wonder – Merry Christmas Baby

Oprah Tops Celebrity Philanthropy A-List

Sat, 12 May 2007 08:24:15 -0000

Written by Steve Purcell

A list of the 30 largest public donations made by celebrities in the past year puts Oprah in the top spot.

The Giving Back Fund, which encourages and advises on celebrity philanthropy, compiles its list each year. President Marc Pollick said, “Encouragement-by-example is the main reason for the Giving Back 30 list.”

Oprah gave $58.3 million to Oprah’s Angel Network and her recently-opened Leadership Academy.

Of the other celebrities high on the list, Barbra Streisand was in fourth spot, having given $11.75 million through her Streisand Foundation.

Tiger Woods took fifth place, giving $9.5 million to organisations including the Tiger Woods Learning Center funded by the Tiger Woods Foundation.

Giving Back’s Marc Pollick praised an increasing trend in celebrity donations, saying, “Ten years ago when Slate magazine first published the Slate 60 reporting on the most generous American philanthropists, the last donor on their list gave $5 million. This year the last donor donated $30 million to charity. This is the type of growth we are hoping to inspire within the sports and entertainment community. One cannot help but be influenced by the generosity of his or her peers.”

The full list and information about how it was compiled can be found at givingback.org. This site has previously reported on many of the list’s featured celebrities and their donations; a comprehensively linked version of the list appears below:

Position	Celebrity	Donation	Cause(s)
1	Oprah Winfrey	$58,300,000	Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy, Oprah’s Angel Network, and other groups
2	Geoffrey Beene	$44,000,000 (bequest)	Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center
3	Jack and Marie Lord	$40,000,000 (bequest)	Hawaii Community Foundation
4	Barbra Streisand	$11,750,000	Streisand Foundation, numerous civil liberties, environmental, and civil rights organizations “dedicated to democratic values”
5	Tiger Woods	$9,500,000	Tiger Woods Learning Center, Earl D. Woods Sr. Scholarship Fund, and other Tiger Woods Foundation programs
6	Rosie O’Donnell	$5,700,000	Katrina Relief efforts including Renaissance Village (a temporary shelter for Katrina victims), day care centers, a rehabilitation center in San Antonio, and a Habitat For Humanity sub division in Baton Rouge
7	Martha Stewart	$5,000,000	New York’s Mt. Sinai Hospital for a center on healthy aging
8	Carmelo Anthony	$4,282,000	CAF Youth Center in Baltimore, AAU Basketball, Syracuse University Recreational Center, and other charities
9	Pat Boone & Shirley Boone	$3,000,000	Pepperdine University for the Graduate School of Education and Psychology Center for the Family
9	LeRoy Neiman	$3,000,000	The School of the Art Institute of Chicago to support a Master’s class in figure drawing
11	Angelina Jolie & Brad Pitt	$2,415,000	School and Community Center in Swakopmund in Namibia, Daniel Pearl Foundation, Namibian hospitals, Doctors Without Borders, Global Action for Children and others
12	Nicolas Cage	$2,000,000	Amnesty International for a fund to help child soldiers
12	Dwayne Johnson (“The Rock”) and Dany Garcia Johnson	$2,000,000	University of Miami to name new Alumni Center living room
12	Paul McCartney	$2,000,000	Adopt-A-Minefield
12	Arnold Palmer	$2,000,000	Pledged to the Arnold Palmer Foundation ultimately to benefit the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute
16	David Geffen	$1,600,000	David Geffen Foundation
17	Susan Saint James and Dick Ebersol	$1,300,000	The Gunnery to help pay for a new dormitory in memory of their son Teddy killed in a plane crash
18	Jeffrey and Marilyn Katzenberg	$1,250,000	Boston University to renovate facilities
19	Andre Agassi	$1,070,000	Andre Agassi Charitable Foundation
20	Tiki and Ronde Barber and family	$1,000,000	University of Virginia to support the McIntire School of Commerce, the Virginia Athletics Foundation, Childrens Hospital, a scholarship fund for African-American students, the Young Alumni Council, and to challenge young alumni to participate in the capital campaign
20	Bob Barker	$1,000,000	Georgetown University to endow a fund at its law school that will focus on the study of animal rights
20	Gloria Estefan	$1,000,000	Miami Paralysis Project
20	Dr. Phil McGraw & Robin McGraw	$1,000,000	Dr. Phil Foundation
20	George Steinbrenner & family	$1,000,000	University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill for Boshamer Stadium for baseball
20	Tony Stewart	$1,000,000	Victory Junction Gang Camp
20	Denzel Washington	$1,000,000	Save Africa’s Children
27	Mike Sexton	$560,000	Special Olympics, Paralyzed Veterans of America, Buoniconti Fund to Cure Paralysis, Children, Inc., Wounded Warrior Project, Ohio State University, and other charities
28	Lance Armstrong	$500,000	Lance Armstrong Foundation
28	Dolly Parton	$500,000	Fort Sanders Medical Center
28	Elizabeth Taylor	$500,000	New Orleans AIDS Task Force to purchase mobile medical unit for AIDS sufferers in New Orleans

Forbes' "Most Generous Celebrities" List

Fri, 19 May 2006 14:04:20 -0000

Written by Steve Purcell

Forbes Magazine has published a list of “Generous Celebrities”, highlighting the incredible generosity of some of the world’s most public faces.

The ten celebrities listed are:

Bono supports AIDS charity DATA and many others
Sandra Bullock gave $1m to the American Red Cross after the 9/11 bombings, and has also donated to the Tsunami relief fund
Nicolas Cage supports Chrysalis, an LA charity for the homeless, and gave $1m to Katrina relief
Jackie Chan is a UNICEF ambassador, founded the Jackie Chan Charitable Foundation, and gave $100,000 to Chrysalis
Céline Dion is Celebrity Patron for the Canadian Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, and donated $1m to the American Red Cross after Hurricane Katrina
Angelina Jolie has given more than $3m to the UNHCR
Paul McCartney supports the Adopt-A-Minefield charity, and he and wife Heather Mills jointly donateed $1.9m to Tsunami relief
Arnold Schwarzenegger supports the Special Olympics, and in 2001 he donated a total of $4.1m to the Twin Towers fund, After School All Stars and Nelson Mandela’s children’s fund
Steven Spielberg is a patron of the Righteous Persons Foundation, founder of the Survivors of the Shoah Visual History Foundation, and gave $1.5m to the Hurricane Katrina relief efforts
Oprah gave $52m to charity in 2005 alone, and wrote a personal cheque for $10m to help victims of the Katrina disaster

Look To The Stars News: Special Olympics

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