Be kind- everyone is traveling on a difficult journey.
The Art of Giving Back
Walt Disney said, "If you believe in a thing, believe in it all the way, implicitly and unquestionably."
One of TLSN’S goals is to promote links to any organization created by a former Longhorn student-athletes, former support staff personnel, or former Coach who incorporates a compassionate component in their charity.
If you have a site that meets the above qualifiers and wants to add your site listed in the "Giving Back" section, email Williamdale@msn.com.
Included on this site are charities inspired by :
Jim Hilliard, Doug English, Michelle Adamolekun, Cole Pittman, Johnnie Johnson, Tommy Nobis, NFL Austin Chapter, Brian Robison, Sam, and Emmanuel Acho, Tina Bonci, Charlie Cravens, Working Exes for Texas Swimming, and TLSN
There is no substitute for a good deed.
The following is a list of compassionate tax-exempts inspired by former Longhorn student-athletes, coaches, trainers, and managers. Due diligence by you is required if you choose to donate or purchase an item from the list below.
Jim Hilliard
Doug English
Doug English a Longhorn Brand Builder
In the Austin American, there was an article about Evan Mallet. He was a Bowie football player that was paralyzed in a car accident.
It was Doug English Lonestar Paralysis Foundation that provided tremendous financial support to benefit Evan.
Doug started this charity as a result of a TCU football player that was severely injured while making a tackle in a game back in the late ’70s. If you are a subscriber to the Austin American Statesman you can read Evan Mallet’s story at the link below,
In addition, Doug’s Foundation also helped a baseball player at ASU, marine, teacher, coach, and later head of a division of Motorola who lost feeling below his knees. After a week of therapy after surgery, he was turned loose on his own even though he could not even get in a car. It took his determination and help from Doug’s LSPF foundation allowed him to walk again with the aid of braces. He is now on the board for LSPF and raises money for scholarships for people like himself and Evan.
Johnnie Johnson
03/05/2021
Johnnie Johnson has been successful in both sports and as an entrepreneur. More importantly, he is a giver from the heart, helping those who need assistance with the MOVING FAMILIES INITIATIVE.
8/15/2020
Moving Families Foundation
Moving is difficult for anyone, especially for young children. The Moving Families Foundation is a 501c3 nonprofit organization that focuses on helping improve the lives of family members by providing them access to character and life skills development activities, high-quality education, and protection for the entire family during periods of transition and change in their lives, specifically when they move or relocate. A specific focus is placed on children ages 19 and younger and college students of all ages. With the foundation:
Our aim is for all eligible children, ages 19 and younger, who move or relocate throughout the U.S. to participate in an extracurricular activity of their choice when they move to a new home. Our goal is to have the Foundation cover the cost of their participation for the first year via the Moving Families Extracurricular Activities Scholarship Plan.
Our goal is for all eligible high school students, ages 19 and younger, who move or relocate throughout the U.S. with their parents during their high school years to have an opportunity to go to college if they desire to do so. To assist in the realization of this goal, the Foundation’s commitment is to provide qualified students with a $4,000 college scholarship, $1,000 for each of their freshman, sophomore, junior, and senior years at a college of their choice via the Moving Families College Scholarship Plan.
Although the Foundation supports all parents moving with children, ages 19 and younger, our aim is to provide life insurance protection for eligible single-parent households when they move or relocate to a new home with children, ages 19 and younger, with a specific focus on protection for their children. The Foundation will provide and pay for the first two years of a $100,000 term life insurance policy for the single parent and a $10,000 rider for each of their children when they move or relocate to a new home. The single parent family will own and be the beneficiary of the insurance policies.
A portion of the proceeds from the new book, From Athletics to Engineering: 8 Ways to Support Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion for All, coauthored Johnnie Johnson and Dr. Michael E. Webber will be donated to the Moving Families Foundation in support of scholarships for children’s extra-curricular activities and college tuition. Proceeds will also be donated to support other select educational programs at the university level.
Johnnie Johnson
President and CEO
World Class Coaches
800-314-7713
www.movingfamiliesinitiative.com
www.worldclasscoaches.com
"OUR Number One Priority - YOU Achieving Your Goals"
http://www.movingfamiliesinitiative.com/
Dear WETS,
This is the time of year we give THANKS for being a part of the Texas Swimming and Diving family!
The Texas Men and Women are off to a great start. Although we can’t be present at their meets, we are there in spirit and enthusiasm and are so impressed with the team’s performances and attitudes to date.
2021 WET$ Donors
We are truly blessed with the support our donors have given our organization. I would love to have every former swimmer, coach, parent, or fan be a part of our fun and happy group. Please reach out to friends, and let’s see if we can double this list before 2021!! Our goals continue to be the same as when our founders started the organization in 1967: HONOR the past, PROMOTE the present and future of Texas swimming and diving and PROVIDE a common forum for all former swimmers, divers, coaches, and fans. Thanks to supporters so far, and If you don’t see your name on the list amongst these early bird heros, please DONATE ONLINE or send your splash of cash (no more than $100.00) WETS, PO Box 132614, Woodlands, TX. 77393. Tax-deductible ID:74-2124063
Please read the Full letter attached to see our early bird donors and lots of fun Longhorn swimming and diving news!!!
A Swimcere THANKSgiving to all
Link to site NFL Austin Chapter site
NFL Alumni-Austin Chapter | Facebook
Mission Statement
The NFL Alumni is a charitable organization composed primarily of former professional football players guided in their volunteer efforts by the motto: Caring for Kids. The NFL Alumni's secondary objective is to help its own by offering support to former pros experiencing financial or medical hardship.
Caring For Kids
For more than 20 years, the NFL Alumni has worked to advance Caring for Kids' mission by engaging in hands-on community service and working to raise money for youth-oriented charitable causes. Contact us to see how you can help, as you do not need to be a former player to become a chapter member.
Michelle Williams Adamolekun
Michelle was the recipient of a full scholarship in the sport of Track & Field from 1989 – 1993 and the Earl Campbell Scholarship in 1992 at the University of Texas at Austin. She was a member of the NCAA Indoor National Championship team in 89-90 and - a member of the 4x100 relay team that won the NCAA Outdoor national championship in 1991.
Michelle strongly believes in giving back to her community and currently serves as President & Co-Founder of the Reggae Girlz.
To learn more about her 501 (c) (3), please click on the link below.
https://reggaegirlzfoundation.com/about
What if I told you that with a small donation of $10, you would be able to help a young girl make healthy life choices, develop knowledge and critical skills to thrive in life. Childhood problems emerging from increasing health risks, low-income families, and gaps in education leave your girls without the opportunity to gain key life lessons and experiences that allow them to be physically/emotionally healthy, academically enriched, and personally fulfilled throughout life. Many young girls are still limited by a lack of access to sports, positive role models, and academic learning opportunities beyond the classroom. The Reggae Girlz Foundation works to level the playing field and avail young girls with a fighting chance to succeed in life by expanding access in the sport of soccer/football, improving their overall health, life skills, and maximizing their true potential.
The Reggae Girlz Foundation (RGF) mission inspires, educates, mobilizes, develops, and supports the next generation of young female soccer players in Jamaica. Through RGF initiatives, we strive to level the playing field for females in the sport by improving the growth, development, and accessibility to quality soccer programs that enhance the physical, mental, spiritual, and personal development in under-served communities across Jamaica.
We are already changing lives; please visit our website to read the success stories of young women positively impacted due to the support, gifts, and contributions from individuals and corporations that have helped them achieve the highest level of international play and success on the world stage.
"Together, we will strive for gender equality, to level the playing field, and create a world where all girls and women can reach their true potential and achieve their goals on and off the soccer/football field." Michelle Adamolekun, RGF President
Charlie Cravens
See video below
Craven's living legacy is the tens of thousands of athletes who are healthier and better prepared competing on fields and courts across the country. Craven is responsible for the modern strength and conditioning program at The University of Texas, and he had a profound impact on the development of other collegiate, professional, and high school training programs.
Link to the donate site is below
https://utdirect.utexas.edu/apps/utgiving/online/nlogon/?menu1=EDPE
Sam Acho and Emmanuel Acho
A link to the great work of Sam and Emmanuel Acho in Giving Back is in the Austin American link below.
Chris Bils Hookem.com Staff
Brothers Sam and Emmanuel Acho left their mark at Texas.
Since leaving the 40 Acres, the Acho brothers have continued to leave a mark wherever they go. They visited Nigeria, where their parents Sonny and Christie Acho were born and where the family built a medical clinic as part of its Living Hope Ministries charity.
Sam and Emmanuel Acho
Emmanuel and Sam spent two weeks at the clinic, which provides free care to families in need.
“We saw over 5,000 people,” Emmanuel Acho said in an Instagram post. “Performed over 100 surgeries for FREE!!” The younger of the two brothers has been out of the league since 2015. He graduated from Texas this spring with a master’s in sports psychology and has delved into the media world as an analyst with the Longhorn Network and Fox 7 Austin. He has also been spreading awareness about the dangers of head injuries in football.
Donate link is below
Tina Bonci
Bill Little commentary: To Tina Bonci, with thanks
University of Texas trainer Tina Bonci passes away at 59.
MEMORIAL GIFTS/CONDOLENCES: The family will advise regarding a future memorial service in Greenville, Pa. A recognition event also will be scheduled in Austin in late spring. Memorial gifts in Tina's honor may be sent to The Longhorn Foundation, The University of Texas/Intercollegiate Athletics, PO Box 7399, Austin, TX 78713-7399, Attn. Rob Heil and note TINA BONCI SPORTS MEDICINE ENDOWMENT FUND on checks. Personal notes of condolence may be sent to Fred Bonci, 462 S. Dallas Ave., Pittsburgh, PA 15208
Bill Little, Texas Media Relations
When you think of Tina Bonci, you think of words that begin with the letter "T"
"T" is for Tina.
"T" is for tenacity.
"T" is for Texas.
"T" is for thanks.
What can you say about someone, who in her 28 years working in the field of athletic training at Texas, touched more people -- with her hands and her heart -- than could fit into any arena, facility or field where Tina weaved her magic.
There is another letter that would fit. Tina captured the essence of the letter "G." She was gentle, gracious, giving. She was indeed a giant, and she was very, very good.
As a pioneer in the field of sports medicine, Tina understood more about the human body than a hospital full of specialists. From the mid-1980s, when she served as an athletic trainer for the USA Olympics women's basketball team, until last weekend when she finally lost a brave battle with cancer, Tina immersed herself in learning.
On the third floor of Bellmont Hall, there was a little cubby hole of a corridor which served as the training room for UT women athletes for years until the men and women's programs combined their training facilities in the Moncrief-Neuhaus Athletics Center. There, Tina was the master of medicine. Staff or student, hurt a limb and need ice? Go see Tina, just down the hall. The machine was always working. Rehab? Got it. Ankle taping? Sure. Counseling? Sit down and visit.
Tina bridged the gap between genders and age groups. Where the legendary Frank Medina became synonymous with athletic training at Texas during his 33 years between 1945-78, Tina served the women's program for 28 years and was still a full-time employee at the time of her death. The irony, of course, is that Tina's time with us was shortened by the failure of the body -- the one thing about all of us she had dedicated her life to preserving. First it was Type I diabetes, and then a complicated form of cancer.
The tenacity entered then, and she whipped both -- living with the diabetes, and willing the cancer into submission.
There is really no count of the number of events she attended, or the number of student-athletes to whom she attended. But they know who they are. Because Tina was always there, caring and cheering, event after event, malady after malady.
She became famous, far beyond the Forty Acres. Though she never reached 60 years of age, she became a legend in her profession. From the time she left the University of Pennsylvania's sports medicine arena to come to Texas in fall 1985, Tina was a fixture at Texas, and an ambassador for her trade.
When Texas made its undefeated run to the NCAA Women's Basketball Championship in 1986, Jody Conradt was quick to note that Tina's arrival had coincided with the team's success. She used all of her medical knowledge to help athletes stay on the court, just as she prepared them for a healthy life beyond the game.
When she realized one of the Longhorns basketball players struggled with an allergy to milk products, she made sure pizza wasn't on her diet. She came into a world where women were just beginning to grow bigger, faster and stronger, and she nurtured and studied to understand, and to help them understand, this brave new world into which they were moving.
You can pitch in all of the available adjectives to describe Tina, and you would be right. She did have a quiet, gentle touch -- patiently kneading the hand of a stroke victim, searching for electrodes that would fire and bring a finger to life. She could be relentless, and she could be firm. But beneath all of that, she was kind. You loved Tina Bonci, because she loved you. It came from inside that tiny body, and it radiated through flashing eyes.
She was on the cutting edge of the modern world of sports medicine. She respected the past, and those in her field who had come before, but she understood that there were new and better ways to treat, and she wasn't afraid to explore. In that way, she was not only a pioneer, but a pathfinder.
As the decade of the 2010s arrived, Tina's life took a turn that all of her training and knowledge couldn't conquer. The cancer had returned, and doctors told her there was nothing more that they could do. It was then that she took a step back, and resolutely faced a future she knew all too well would not be what she, or any of us, would have wanted.
She had earned her place where just a few women were beginning to emerge in her youth. She had defied odds in her profession, and even had withstood challenges of health for her and for her hundreds of patients. Gallantly, she now faced the one thing she couldn't whip.
When Texas played basketball in West Virginia, Chris Plonsky, Jody Conradt, and long-time friend Becky Marshall visited Tina at her brother's home in Pittsburgh. There they laughed and enjoyed a great Italian meal. Then they said goodbye. Friday, just a few hours before the Texas women's team defeated Oklahoma in the quarterfinals of the Big 12 Conference tournament, Tina lost her final battle.
Tina Bonci was instrumental in maintaining and promoting the health of female student athletes. She entered the Longhorn Hall of Honor in 2013. She is an inductee in the Southwest Athletic Trainers' Association Hall of Fame, and in 2009 she was recognized as the Most Distinguished Athletic Trainer.
Donate information is listed below.
Cole Pittman
Donation information to the Cole Pittman foundation is in the link below denoted in red font.
The University of Texas has established a scholarship in the name of Cole Pittman. The first $25,000 contribution was made by U.T. Men's and Women's Athletics. Friends are asked to direct donations to the Longhorn Foundation, P.O. Box 7399, Austin, TX 78713. Please make contributions payable to The University of Texas. The link to Cole Pittman's charity is below.
Tommy Nobis
The link to the Tommy Nobis charity is below, denoted in red font.
To know the Tommy Nobis who transcends time, you need to know his heart. He will probably always be remembered first for his football legacy, but his Legacy from the heart is, in many ways, more critical.
In 1975, before setting up tax-exempt charities were fashionable, Tommy Nobis established an organization to help the underprivileged and disabled acquire working skills. Jeff Van Note paid tribute to Tommy when he said, "there is no one in the history of sports in Atlanta that has given more back to Atlanta's community than Tommy Nobis" and that "he is, by far, the greatest Falcon football player ever."
Tommy Nobis Is The Founder Of The Tommy Nobis Center. He has Been Honored With The Joseph P. Kennedy, Jr Award For His Support of The Georgia Special Olympics, as NFL Man of The Year for his "Work From The Heart," and the 2008 recipient of the WXIA-TV Community Service Award for his Outstanding Contribution to the Community.
Brian Robison "Reel "Em In" Foundation
2016
The Brian Robison “Reel ‘Em In” Foundation, founded by Jayme and Brian Robison in 2015, was formed to provide financial, emotional and physical support for those in need. Robison couples his affinity for bass fishing with giving back to the community by hosting an annual bass fishing tournament. Each year, Robison and his wife select a Texas-based non-profit as the beneficiary of their tournament, and all proceeds are donated to the selected organization in need. The Foundation is committed to continued research and evaluation to seek out groups identified as struggling and in need of help. In April 2016, The Brian Robison “Reel ‘Em ” Foundation raised close to $30,000 for K9s4COPs.
For more information on how to donate, please visit www.brianrobison96.com.
The Longhorn foundation
The Longhorn Foundation is spearheading the Mary Ann & DeLoss Dodds Campaign to specifically support former student-athletes who seek to return to campus and complete undergraduate or postgraduate degrees.
If you can help fund this worthy cause, please make a donation to the Mary Ann & DeLoss Dodds fund at
TheLonghornFoundation.com/Dodds.
Texas Legacy Support Network (TLSN)
Benny Pace and Billy Dale
TLSN Board of Directors members Beth Coblentz, Spanky Stephens, Jim Kay, Benny Pace, and Billy Dale are all T-ring recipients.
November 2017, Benny Pace and Billy Dale toasted the completion of the TLSN 501 (C) (3). TLSN's mission is to help qualifying former longhorns who have fallen through society's safety net. As of 12/20/2021, the organization has supported three former student-athletes with an average grant of $15,000. The precursor to the TLSN tax-exempt (LSG), helped nine former student-athletes with an average check of $12,000.
Over the last seven years, chronicling the history of Longhorn sports has been a passionate part of the TLSN mission. That passion has not waned. On the contrary, it is stronger now than in 2014.
That said, Longhorn sports history is not the primary mission of TLSN. Instead, TLSN Board members' goal is to raise and distribute funds through a 501(c)(3) to assist qualifying former Longhorn student-athletes, trainers, managers, coaches, and immediate families.
With deep sadness and reflection, TLSN read about the circumstances surrounding the death of Chris Samuels. I don't know if Chris was seeking help but could not find it, or maybe he knew there was help (TLSN) but refused it.
However, what I do know is that TLSN had resources available to help Chris. Contributions from the heart of donors to assist those who built the Longhorn Brand.
My guess is that Chris was not aware of TlSN's mission. If that is true, the Longhorn Nation needs to remedy that travesty. More needs to be done to inform all that there is an organization whose sole mission is to help qualifying former Longhorns.
The TLSN mission is at https://texas-lsn.squarespace.com/build-it-and-they-will-come
Visit guidestar.org and type in the search engine “TLSN” to learn more about the Texas Legacy Support Network mission.
To make a tax-exempt donation to the Texas Legacy Support Network to assist qualifying former Longhorn athletes, trainers, managers, coaches and their immediate families click on the "donate" button below.