Checking For Charity Beef & Beer Tickets Now On Sale!

WE NEED YOUR HELP! Help selling tickets to the Checking For Charity inaugural Beef & Beer event. Tickets are on sale NOW!

Here are the details:

Thursday August 19th from 6-10pm
PJ Whelihans in Cherry Hill
Chinese Auction, 50/50 raffle, games, food and more.
All the beer you can drink.
Cost is $30 per person in advance. $40 at the door.
We expect a BIG Turnout for this event and are not restricted to one room at PJ'S. Our goal is to sell over 250 tickets.

So go out and sell tickets.....wife, girlfriend, family, friends and co-workers.
Ticket sales will be by Pay Pal on our website www.checkingforcharity.com or by sending a check to:

Checking for Charity Corporation
PO Box 31
Mount Laurel NJ 08054

**Please make your check payable to "Checking for Charity**

When you arrive at PJ's your name will be on the paid in full list. Get a wristband and have fun.

See you there....now go out there and buy/sell some tickets!

Checking For Charity Corporation - First Event Was Huge Success!

The first event hosted by Checking For Charity was a huge success. Not only did the event exceed all expectations with regard to professionalism, level of competition, and money raised for charity, it was extremely fulfilling on a personal level to be a part of something so special. I plan on writing a more detailed post when all the funds are totaled from the weekend's event but for now I wanted to share some of the positive press that we got from the weekend's event. See what the Courier Post had to say about our tourney here. Thanks again to all participants, volunteers, charity representatives, and most importantly the world class guys who stepped up to do the dirty work; you know who you are!

"We love what we do but we wanted to take it to the next level and give back," said Paul Caruso, who helped organize the first annual tournament dubbed "Checking for Charity."

Caruso, of Marlton, said the idea for the tournament was born through a group of local hockey enthusiasts who meet at the Voorhees rink on Sundays for a morning hockey game.

When the idea was brought up the men, many who are business professionals, put their connections together to organize sponsors and charities for the tournament.

Caruso said the plan is to begin holding the charity event annually and to even expand it out to other cities.

Donation totals weren't tallied after the match Sunday but Caruso estimated the weekend, which included an auction and donations from area businesses, would tally between $6,000 and $10,000. Charities included the Philadelphia Children's Hospital and the American Heart Association.

Driven - Myron Rolle

“You’re not talking about somebody who is just driven. You’re talking about somebody who is truly special, the kind of person who becomes a president or a world leader … he’s different.”

I think this quote sums up what this article is all about. Myron Rolle is a student athlete that needs to be talked about. He is an athlete that is going about things the 'right way.' He is a guy that young kids need to be exposed to. If you read this article I am pretty sure you will be impressed. Its not often that you come across a potential NFL draft pick that is simultaneously trying to become a neurosurgeon. Then throw in the fact that he is a motivational speaker and works on multinational healthcare programs and you really do have someone who is special.

But where Holmes will eventually head back to Pittsburgh to resume his football career, Rolle is putting that part of his life on hold. He’s heading to Oxford University as a Rhodes Scholar in September as he takes a year away from the game to chase the neurosurgeon gig. Even as Rolle keeps himself in shape these days, hoping to maintain his status as a first- or second-round pick in the 2010 NFL draft, he has made the medical gig a high priority as well. After a day of training, Rolle has spent afternoons shadowing orthopedic surgeon Dr. Brad Homan at nearby Celebration Hospital. He has gone on rounds and even observed Homan in the operating room.

“I didn’t set that up for Myron,” said Shaw, one of the best-known trainers with a client list featuring the likes of Deion Sanders and Michael Vick(notes). “He did that on his own because he wanted to. Most of the guys I have here, they want to go test drive a car at Richard Petty’s track or go fishing or get on the golf course when they’re done working out. Myron spends his afternoon thinking about what he’s going to do next with his life.

I think that Rolle possesses a quality that we can all learn from. He taking advantage of the time he has on this earth. Although he may be at the extreme end of the spectrum, we all look back at times and think that we could have made better use of the time we had during a given chapter of our lives. Not many people look back and wish they did less with their life. Its good to read a feel good story like this once in a while.

Happy Easter! Another Feel Good Article

Happy Easter everyone. A great man named Dickie Dunn once said, "I was just trying to capture the spirit of the thing Reg." That quote is a throwback to the great movie Slap Shot and a tribute to the late great Paul Newman. I, like Dickie, am also trying to capture the spirit of the thing. And that thing happens to be Easter. So I am following up with another feel good article that I came across the other day. Do yourself a favor and read the full article here.

Retired Navy Captain Ed Nicholson has put together something that I find pretty incredible, and something that I can relate too on a couple different levels. He has put together a foundation that seeks to rehabilitate wounded soldiers through fly fishing. The Project Healing Waters website can be found here.

"The demons of war, you just don't set them aside," says Nicholson, 67. "But once you get out on the river, the serenity is incredibly healing."

While recovering from cancer surgery at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in 2004, Nicholson witnessed wounded and disabled men and women -- many of them amputees -- struggling with their injuries.

"Other than being in Vietnam and seeing people in the process of getting hurt, I never really had a full appreciation for the recovery part and what happened after they came home. My recovery was nothing compared to what they were facing. It planted the seed that maybe there's something I could do," Nicholson says.

Now I am not even going to pretend I can relate to what these wounded soldiers are going through. However, I feel as though being in the military gives me the ability to relate to their situation a little more. Maybe it just makes my empathy a little more real. I also relate to this story because I used to call myself a fly fisherman. I grew up camping with my Mom, Dad, and Brother in Oregon and we would always go fly fishing. I have some amazing memories from those days and I look forward to continuing them after my own service. I continued fly fishing in college in Colorado, but when I moved to New Jersey I stopped. So while I cannot truly call myself a fly fisherman today, I am a fly fisherman at heart that fully appreciates the serene and soothing effects of fly fishing and just being amongst the glory of nature.

I am always amazed by people like Ed and their ability to just pick up and do something astonishing for other people. I can only hope that one day people will describe me in the same light.

3 Point Sniper!

I am all about the feel good stories this week and this one might top them all. Very cool.

http://hotair.com/archives/2009/02/05/video-the-three-point-kid/