Athletes Charities and Events Worth Supporting

First and foremost, there are several “it goes without saying” celebrity athletes who, in my book, can do no wrong. Dikembe Mutombo walks on water, period. Dude can shake his finger at me and ask me to move to the Congo to clean-up bedpans at his hospital and I’d do it. He is a humanitarian first, an athlete second. Safe to say he reigns supreme in the Church of Athlebritology. Yeah, Melo’s permitted through the pearly gates but I’m gonna need a few hours with him in purgatory first just to make sure…Gilbert Arenas, Dwight Howard, Steve Nash, Amare Stoudemire, Chris Paul-all gain immediate entry…as do Grant Hill, Etan Thomas, Juwan Howard, and Tony Hawk. Quite a few won’t make it into Athlebritology heaven: Lebron James, Michael Vick, Kobe Bryant and Roger Clemens just to name a few.

Over time, it’s become increasingly easier to determine who’s really into helping others and who’s in it just for the PR (a-hem Lebron). As I add events to the calendar page, I’ll be sure to highlight the ones I personally recommend. You can take my advice or not…for example, if you live in So-Cal and have never attended the Cancer for College event with Will Ferrell then you must be insane. Ferrell lends his name, time and comedy to this incredibly necessary and sincere charity event. For a small price you help send a cancer patient to college, hang out with Frank the Tank, play golf, eat good food and make new friends…another event I wouldn’t miss is Celebrity Fight Night held in Arizona. It’ll cost ya a bit more to attend the premier fundraiser for the Muhammad Ali Parkinson Center, but you get one hell of a swag-bag and a truly priceless experience…

Granted, I can’t list ‘em all in one post…but I will keep you updated on what some of our mighty might fine men are doing…which all goes back to their foundations and how they are run. I want to help raise money and awareness for foundations with employees who care about their work. Don’t wait three days to call me back if I got a fat check for you-because to me this means you must not really need it or care as much as you’d like us to believe. Anyway…several cool new foundations and website have come to my attention in the last few weeks. One comes from hockey great Jeremy Roenick.

Roenick just launched his new site Roenicklife.com and he did it with style. No janky dead links or non-responsive PR folks…In part, he wrote: “I have spent the past twenty-one years sharing my passion and myself with the game of hockey. I have had the opportunity to touch the hearts of millions of fans and have been excited everyday to help create a smile on so many childrens faces…I need to be involved for myself…to keep touching the hearts of all the people that have supported me for half my life is a huge priority…I decided to take the website a step further, and incorporate my love of the game, my voice, and my passion to use the website as a place where constant communication between all supporters can be used to help benefit charity.”

Currently, Roenick’s got several charity related ‘raffles’ on his site. You can win Jeremy’s personal tickets to the Sharks/Dallas Stars Game, an autographed jersey, signed photos and other stuff…winners announced on February 14, so hurry up and enter, proceeds to benefit the Aubri Brown Club.

For those who find themselves at the SuperBowl this year, look for several worthy events…if I were a betting girl I’d say the place to be is the Par & Poker Celebrity Challenge for Charity. Hosted by Super Bowl Champion Seth Joyner, the January 29 event will feature a celebrity packed golf and poker experience and it’s FREE! Don’t believe me? Last year Celebrity Golf Magazine named it as one-of-the top Celebrity Golf Events. Aside from providing awareness about the Joyner-Walker Foundation, Par and Poker aims to raise awareness for its host city charities as well. The JWF, in my opinion- is one of the best out there for several reasons. One, they got a tight team running the show, and two, because they are one step ahead of the curve-or more specifically, the economy. The foundations flagship ‘financial literacy’ program schools kids on finances. Founders (NFL Veteran) Seth Joyner, (PGA Tour Pro) Adam Walker and Leonard Walker have made it their goal to become the nations leader in educating our youth on finances, investments and money management. Last year, the program enrolled 13 students at South Mountain Community High School. “Right now our short term goal is to get into all ten community colleges here (Arizona),” Andy Walker said,” We want to be the financial literacy provider for all of them. Our longterm goal on a national level is to be the face of financial literacy for students and make it mandatory for them to have a certain number of hours to graduate.” For more info, please visit the Joyner-Walker Foundation and tell ‘em Delinda sent ya.

As always, thanks for reading. Delinda@athlebrities.com