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 long-term 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

Mark Sanchez and USC Win More Than Roses

Admittedly, I couldn’t care less about the Rose Bowl. Being a So-Cal girl, I do appreciate our college teams, both UCLA and USC. Don’t ask me to pick a side cuz it will never happen…but, something caught my eye as I tuned into the end of the Rose Bowl on Thursday. That something was written on the face of Mark Sanchez as he flashed that drop-dead smile across the screen: ‘R.I.P. Garenn.’

Props to USC for its incredible 38-24 victory over Penn State-but bigger props for advertising something worthwhile during a game…a young boys battle with cancer. His name: Garenn Figueroa. He dreamed of going to USC…and for at least three games, Sanchez inked up his face in support of the boys battle.

Unfortunately, the little guy passed away on November 16 after a long battle with cancer but thanks to the USC Trojans his memory lives on. Well done boys.

R.I.P. Garenn Figueroa, R.I.P. Feb. 4, 1993 - Nov. 16, 2008.

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

Double De-Licious on a Dhow in Dubai

When the boys visit Dubai, they do it right. We’ve seen just about all the worlds’ best doing their thing atop the Burj Al Arab, so it’s no surprise that our Spanish treat Rafael Nadal and the used-to-be-worlds-number-one Roger Federer celebrated the 2009 ATP World Tour by playing a match atop a ‘dhow’ in Doha Bay…

Granted, Andy Murray is on-fire right now. The Scottish beast spanked our top-ranked Nadal 6-4, 5-7, 6-3 Saturday to capture the Capitala World Tennis Championship exhibition and $250,000 winner-take-all prize. A day earlier in the semifinals, he showed Federer who’s boss with a 4-6, 6-2, 7-6 (6) victory. I’m actually cool with Murray as long as he wasn’t the one who used the beautiful face of Marat Safin as a punching bag. Safin arrived for his match against Italy’s Simone Bolelli in Perth sporting facial bruising he said he suffered in Moscow.

Props to Columbian singer Shakira who has taken an interest in our tapa…too bad she isnt beautiful…Maria-I’d be worried gurl.

And its not just our tennis-babies who are frolicking in Dubai…dear god, AC Milan arrived at Al-Nasr’s club ground in Dubai on Friday to start their winter training camp in the Gulf emirate that will culminate in the Dubai Football Challenge on January 6 (AC Milan versus Hamburg SV Germany) …is it hot in here or is it just me?

New rule: weekends are for objectifying…weekdays are for charity. And I will pay more attention to Don Cheadle.

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

DYNAMIC DUO’S

Hope everyone was safe, happy and loved this holiday…Events have been added to the Celebrity Athlete Charity Events Calendar, with plenty more to come. Next week, I’m gonna break down some of the events for you and highlight the one which I recommend…if you know of an event you’d like listed, please email me, an if you are a PR firm or Athlete rep, please contact me to be included on the calendar…but in the meantime, I’ve got plenty of pent-up ‘are-you-kidding-me’s’ that need to come out….

The battle between my heart and my libido rages on- spurred by David Beckham “on loan” to AC Milan alongside Paolo Maldini-I must bow to the babes and give proper recognition to some of the men who’ve paired up in the past to make me question my sanity…Beckham is a no-brainer, but when paired with Maldini? Are you kidding me? Geez-Us. Both are exceptional ‘givers’ in the charity world but right now I am so blinded by ‘fineness’ that I can’t even spell humanitarian…and for the record, Beckham’s sex-appeal is no match for the Italian beast who’s dark hair, piercing eyes and delicious accent make Beck’s look a bit…ah…mousy?

As I refresh my desktop screen saver, I still cannot bring myself to delete this photo from 2007 when we enjoyed a soul shattering moment of ‘hello-ness’ as Camilo Villegas stood alongside Aaron Baddeley…not much else to say except here’s to a few more crawls, and victories, from Villegas this year.

Another one of my favorite: Chad Pennington, then still with the Jets, and the ‘are you kidding me’ look on his face as Tom Brady whispers sweet nothings in his ear…I’ve always had a secret thing for Chad-and I dare say you’d be hard-pressed to find anyone who’s got a bad thing to say about him-as a person, as a player I’m sure there’s haters but who cares as Chad and his new team (Miami) watch Favre and the Jets say buh-bye to the Bowl.

One duo that always makes me lose my voice is Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer. This photo from 2006 is timeless to me. The Swiss-Mister-in my opinion- seems to always rely on his reputation to pave the way to victory, whereas our Tapa is always busy training. The manner in which Rafa is holding his victory screams ‘oh my god I really did it’ while the Swiss-ter wears a look which says “yeah-enjoy-it- while-you-can”…last laugh on R-Fed as our baybee sits pretty at number one. Both are in Abu Dhabi for the start of the Capitala World Tennis Championships. Vamos you sweet thing, Va-mos.

Pavel Nedved and Allesandro Del Piero. April 2007. I don’t know if Del Piero slapped Nedved in the face or kissed him afterwards, but the photo qualifies-in my book- as a classic.

Here’s to an awesome 2009!
As always, thanks for reading.

delinda@athlebrities.com

Celebrity Athletes in 2008
2008 has been a great year for some of our favorites. Yes, I made a vow to take the month off but unfortunate I can’t stay away…too many of our guys are out there playing Santa, making cookies with kids and spreading the holiday cheer…I couldn’t possibly cover all the action, just a few memorable moments that made my estrogen spike and my man question my sanity…

Rafa is sitting tight at number one after sending the Swiss Mister down the rankings ladder and finally clinching his spot atop the world rankings…Our kitten Camilo Villegas grabbed a few headlines, several trophies and a shit load of estrogen en route to 2009…Lewis Hamilton became the youngest champion in Formula One history and owned the word “class” while kicking ass in the face of racism…we fell in love with Michael Phelps and Usain Bolt while raising awareness for genocide…Men’s USA Basketball did us proud and brought home the gold…and we, the people, elected one of the hottest ballers alive to be Our President. All in all, I would say a mighty good year.

Ideally, I would elaborate on Carmelo Anthony’s ‘Very Melo Holiday Event’ which was held in Denver…however, I am at a loss for words. Only one comes to mind…Geez-Us. Carmelo Cares people and don’t ever doubt it. “It’s important to me to make a significant impact on the communities that have positively affected me. My family and I are committed to growing my Foundation so that we can continue to help families in need.”

Another Nugget up to do-gooding…Chauncey Billups, along with Ray and Rodney Billups-spread some holiday cheer during a holiday event for families at the Hiawatha Davis Rec Center in Denver.

Shane Battier gets mad props for helping this little kid from Casa De Esperanza pick out some toys during the Houston Rockets Season of Giving in Houston…and gotta give a massive hug to the most underrated ‘giver’ in the League-Ron Artest…Ron-Ron made cookies during the Rockets event and passed out gifts along with Luther Head, Carl Landry and Joey Dorsey…

And this is the fifth year in a row that the NBA has teamed up with ‘Feed the Children’… This years event in Detroit saw five Pistons -Kwame Brown, Allen Iverson, Jason Maxiell, Tayshaun Prince and Rasheed Wallace- stepping in as the Fab-Five for this years ‘Miracle in Motown’ where they fed five thousand families…For me, the Pistons embody something that transcends basketball. Off the top of my head I can’t think of any controversy, jail time or scandal involving the Motown boys that would deem them unworthy of praise, so correct me if I’m wrong-until then, they get my vote for sincerity, good will and never saying no when asked to help others.

Have a safe and happy holiday season…remember to check out all the celebrity philanthropy we’re covering at Look to the Stars…have a rocking new year, hug a child and I’ll see ya in (yikes) ’09.

As always, thanks for reading.
Delinda Lombardo

**Publishing Notice**
I’m taking the rest of the year off!!! See ya in January kids…

STEVE NASH: PATTERSON AWARD

Steve Nash earned some serious love for his philanthropy…but not really sure if anyone noticed? Apparently, Nashty was given the award during a pre-game ceremony at the Sun-Lakers game…maybe the photogs didn’t notice or care but I can’t find any photos…regardless, the Sports Philanthropy Project (SPP) and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) presented the 2008 Steve Patterson Award for Excellence in Sports Philanthropy to Nash’s foundation…

“It is an honor to receive this type of recognition for the work that I care about so deeply,” said Nash. “The Steve Nash Foundation is dedicated to assisting underserved children in their health, personal development, education and enjoyment of life. Steve Patterson is the kind of person that always sought out to improve the lives and well being of others and to be awarded in his name is truly an honor. I am humbled by your acknowledgement of our work in the global community. This is just the beginning and we look forward to continuing these efforts and building on the foundation we have established.” The award was created in memory of Steve Patterson, former UCLA basketball star, NBA player and Arizona State University college coach, who died of cancer in 2004 and believed in and practiced the power of sports philanthropy. Carlette Patterson, President of Patterson Sports Ventures. “My husband spent his life building partnerships on and off the court, and we hope his life and legacy will inspire more and more sports teams and athletes who have the power to create substantial change in their own backyards. The fact that Steve Nash will receive his award for work here in the same community in which my husband Steve and our family lived and worked and cherished makes it that much more meaningful.”

I LOVE MADAME TUSSAUDS

The latest hormone tickler from Madame Tussauds is Washington Wizard babe Gilbert Arenas…his ‘figure’ was unveiled yesterday at the Madame Tussauds Wax Museum in Washington D.C., and Arenas took along 50 kids from his Zer0 to Her0 Foundation….”It is an honor to join the ranks of sports icons such as Muhammad Ali and Tiger Woods by being immortalized in wax at Madame Tussauds Washington D.C.,” Arenas said. “Like the Wizards, Madame Tussauds has become a fixture in the nation’s capital and one that I’m proud to be a part of.” Now, I don’t know how or if I qualify for the job, but I’d like to take a stab as one of the artists who create these treats…Gil sat for over two hours while the ‘artists’ took hundreds of (a-hem) measurements and photos, as well as selected eye, hair and skin tone matches for his figure…artists even insert each strand of hair individually…the creation of Arenas’ figure’s head took nearly five weeks to complete.

CARMELO ANTHONY PARTIES IN LA WITHOUT ME

Last night, celebrities, artists and professional athletes hit up Siren Studios in Hollywood to celebrate Carmelo Anthony and Jordan Brand’s launch of the Jordan Melo M5 basketball shoe…luckily, I wasn’t not able to attend, if I had, I suspect I wouldn’t have made it passed the “unique images of Carmelo’s daily life off the court, including candid imagery of Carmelo taking breaks between games, interacting with his fans and just enjoying life.”…The black-carpet event replicated a modern art gallery opening…adding to the modern art feel was Kenyon Martin, Chauncey Billups and J.R. Smith. “Tonight’s event means a lot to me because the M5 is my fifth shoe and any time you can be associated with a brand like Jordan it’s special. The shoe fits me and my game so well and it’s my favorite shoe of them all since I’ve been a part of the process since day one.” For more info visit Nike.com and trust me when I say the splash page is a must see for all Sweet Melon lovers.

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As always, thanks for reading.
Delinda Lombardo

THAT’S AMARE

When the man hits the wells and the kids are all swell, that’s Amare…my humanitarian bells are ringing loudly for one of the sexiest philanthropists to pick up a ball, Amare Stoudemire. Last September, the beast took a trip to Africa to help make a difference for communities in need…specifically, rehabbing old water wells and fixing ‘em up so kids are given a chance to surpass the expected live span in Sierra Leone of 26 years-old.

Sexy Stoudemire went to Sierra Leone, West Africa on behalf of his foundation Each 1, Teach 1, and the Zee Community Development Foundation. Amare has already donated heaps of money to fix the wells, and even got down and dirty while doing so. But Amare isn’t one to make a trip halfway cross the world and not make the most of it, so while there, he also met with the Minister of Sports, Vice President, and President of Sierra Leone in efforts to improve the quality of life.

David Zimmerman chronicles part of Amare’s visit in the below video.

And who said one man can’t make a difference? 

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As always, thanks for reading.
Delinda Lombardo

MATCH AGAINST POVERTY
“We are thrilled that the ‘Match Against Poverty’ is attracting more and more spectators. This is a game we all need to win.” Ronaldo

Close to 30,000 soccer fans attended Monday’s fifth edition of the Match Against Poverty…the event, organized by football legends Zinedine Zidane and Ronaldo, is just a small part of their role as Goodwill Ambassadors for the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). The objective of the match is to raise public awareness of the fight against poverty and to convince governments of the value of working towards the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), which seek to cut world poverty in half by 2015.

The game was played between ‘Friends of Zidane’ and the ‘Friends of Ronaldo’ and ended in a 2-2 draw. “The aim of such a match is to make people aware of the problem of poverty in the world,” said AC Milan star Ronaldo, who is still battling an injury and was substituted in the first half by seven-time Formula One world champion Michael Schumacher. “We don’t forget where we have come from and we are uniting in a good cause,” former France international Zidane, who grew up in a poor neighborhood of Marseille. The match was played in the central Moroccan city of Fez. Proceeds will as in previous years benefit anti-poverty projects in Eastern Europe, Asia, Africa and Latin America. Need more? There’s pa-lenty of video footage available on Youtube!

GREAT GOLDEN BALLS OF FIRE

Inter Milan’s sexy Swedish striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic has been awarded ‘The Ball of Gold’ after the Swedish Soccer Award 2008 Gala dinner at the Globen Arena in Stockholm…the beast won gold for ‘best Swedish soccer player of 2008’…another one of our Golden Balls, David Beckham, has proven he’s got much more than the Midas Touch…an offer has been made on a home in London where Golden Balls lived for the first two years of his life. The Victorian terraced house-sans the Beckham connection-is valued around $365,000…but the Beck’s connection was sniffed out by an ‘unnamed’ Australian businessman who collects Beckham memorabilia and dude offered up $1.4M for the pad…

MARADONA MADNESS

I haven’t quite gotten used to our furry beast, Diego Maradona, being named Argentina’s coach, but I am certainly ready for the shenanigans…oh, and they’ve already started. Coach Diego lost his pendant during a training session…one of the ball boys later found it and was oh-so graciously mauled by the beast.

Like what you read? Subscribe to my RSS feed for daily email updates! (link on top right)
As always, thanks for reading.
Delinda Lombardo