CARSON, Calif. (Thursday, June 16, 2016) – The LA Galaxy have been nominated in the Sports Humanitarian of the Year Awards, presented by ESPN, as a finalist for Sports Humanitarian Team of the Year. The second annual Sports Humanitarian of the Year Awards will celebrate and honor leagues, teams, individuals and members of the sporting community that are using the power of sport to make a positive impact on society. The sports industry-wide event will be held on Tuesday, July 12 at The Conga Room at L.A. Live, which returns as a sponsor of the event.
The Sports Humanitarian Team of the Year represents a sports club/team that demonstrates how teamwork can create a measurable impact on a community or cause. The winner will be able to direct a $100,000 grant from ESPN to the qualified charity related to the award-winning humanitarian efforts. The finalists will be able to direct a $25,000 grant to the charity related to their award-winning efforts.
In celebration of the LA Galaxy’s twentieth year in Southern California, the team engaged its players, ownership, staff and supporters in the 20 for Twenty initiative to show the community its appreciation of their support. The team set out to accomplish 20 community service events around the Los Angeles area, but this goal soon expanded — 406 volunteers participated in 125 events by year’s end. From enrolling 3,000 local elementary students in the LA Galaxy Kick Start Reading Challenge, to packing 2,200 food kits for hungry families during the holidays, to spearheading the team’s Special Olympics Unified squad that competed after a pair of matches involving the Galaxy and FC Dallas, the LA Galaxy continues to score big in the community.
Laila Ali will return as host for the event, which will feature a performance by Grammy-nominated singer-songwriter Andra Day. Highlights of the evening will be showcased during a 30-minute program on ESPN, July 15, at 7 p.m. ET.
The net proceeds of the event will benefit the Stuart Scott Memorial Cancer Research Fund at The V Foundation. Lilly Oncology, along with other Sports Humanitarian of the Year Awards sponsors, supports the V Foundations’ quest to end cancer. Additionally, ESPN will grant a collective total of nearly $800,000 to the charities of the nominees and winners, double the amount awarded last year. In total, more than $1 million will be distributed to the community as a result of the initiative.
During the event, winners will be announced from nominees of four award categories including Sports Humanitarian of the Year, Sports Humanitarian Team of the Year, and two new awards in 2016, the Corporate Community Impact Award and League Humanitarian Leadership Award. Additionally, three Stuart Scott ENSPIRE Award honorees will be recognized.
Multiple sports-related leagues and/or governing bodies – including MLB, MLS, NBA, NFL, NHL, USOC, USTA, WNBA and WWE – have nominated athletes, teams and community members who are using the power of sports to transform lives and uplift communities.
Nominees for the four categories and the honorees for the Stuart Scott ENSPIRE Award include:
- Sports Humanitarian of the Year finalists: Brent Burns (San Jose Sharks), Tina Charles (New York Liberty), Carlos Dunlap (Cincinnati Bengals) and Chris Paul (Los Angeles Clippers)
- Sports Humanitarian Team of the Year finalists: Detroit Pistons, LA Galaxy, San Francisco 49ers and San Francisco Giants
- Corporate Community Impact finalists: Bank of America, BASF, DICK’S Sporting Goods, Kaiser Permanente and Mercedes-Benz USA
- League Humanitarian Award: Winner to be announced at the dinner, July 12
- Stuart Scott ENSPIRE Award honorees: Billie Jean King, Robert Kraft and the 2015 University of Missouri Football Team
The finalists and winners have been determined by an independent selection committee, which includes: Derreck Kayongo, CEO of the Center for Civil and Human Rights; Nancy Lublin, founder and CEO of Crisis Text Line; Sab Singh, founder of Sports Doing Good and professor at Farmingdale State College; Caryl Stern, CEO of the US Fund for UNICEF; and Eli Wolff, director of the Inclusive Sports Initiative at the Institute for Human Centered Design and co-director of the Royce Fellowship for Sport and Society at Brown University.
“We are honored to once again gather the sports world to recognize these charitable individuals and organizations,” said Kevin Martinez, ESPN vice president of Corporate Citizenship. “Thanks to the collective support from numerous sports leagues and our sponsors, the inaugural Sports Humanitarian of the Year Awards was an enormous success with significant funds awarded to The V Foundation’s Stuart Scott Memorial Cancer Research Fund as well as so many other impactful causes. We plan to build upon that, and make this year an even more powerful showcase of how the power of sport can ENSPIRE social change.”
Below are the award descriptions and nominees and honorees for the 2016 Sports Humanitarian Team of the Year Award.
SPORTS HUMANITARIAN TEAM OF THE YEAR
Nominees (winner to be announced at awards ceremony July 12):
- LA Galaxy: In celebration of the LA Galaxy’s twentieth year in Southern California, the team engaged its players, ownership, staff and supporters in the “20 for Twenty” initiative to show the community its appreciation of their support. The team set out to accomplish 20 community service events around the Los Angeles area, but this goal soon expanded — 406 volunteers participated in 125 events by year’s end. From enrolling 3,000 local elementary students in the LA Galaxy Kick Start Reading Challenge, to packing 2,200 food kits for hungry families during the holidays, to spearheading the team’s Special Olympics Unified squad that competed after a pair of matches involving the Galaxy and FC Dallas, the LA Galaxy continues to score big in the community.
- Detroit Pistons: Detroit Pistons owner Tom Gores views the franchise as a community asset, and the organization has rallied its players, partners and fans in support of a broad range of charitable programs. The team’s response to the Flint water crisis is an important example. Gores, a Flint native, pledged $10 million to support relief and revitalization efforts in Flint and launched a private sector campaign called FlintNOW. Pistons players, head coach Stan Van Gundy, and vice chairman Arn Tellem rallied support for relief efforts throughout the NBA community, including other team owners. In addition, the Pistons partnered with the National Basketball Players Association to deliver 8,000 nutrition packs to Flint school children. The team has also hosted basketball camps and other events to inspire kids and raise awareness about issues facing the community.
- San Francisco 49ers: Located in the heart of Silicon Valley, the San Francisco 49ers are seeking to improve STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) education for children throughout the Bay Area. As such, the 49ers Foundation strategically created two distinct programs: The first — 49ers STEM Education Program at the 49ers Museum — annually provides a free day of STEM learning for 60,000+ students through a common core-aligned science of football curriculum. The second — the 49ers STEM Leadership Institute — is a six-year program that delivers more than 300 hours of supplemental STEM education to 60 students in grades 7-12 each year.
- San Francisco Giants: Twenty-one years ago, the San Francisco Giants created Junior Giants to help end the cycle of violence in impoverished areas around the city. Over the years, the program has served more than 275,000 children around California, Nevada and Oregon with the help of 35,000 coaches. And while baseball participation among 6-12 year olds has decreased 14% since 2008, Junior Giants has increased participation 62% during the same time. The program also is designed to build life skills, and a survey of parents, coaches and youth players found that 76% of participants were engaged in more physical activity, 64% read more, 89% said their confidence was improved, and 86% knew what to say or do about bullying.
At the inaugural Sports Humanitarian of the Year Awards (2015), the following individuals, teams and campaigns were recognized:
- Sports Humanitarian Team of the Year: Chicago Bulls
- Sports Humanitarian of the Year: Tamika Catchings, Indiana Fever
- Stuart Scott ENSPIRE Awards: Seattle Seahawks Coach Pete Carroll, “Like A Girl” Campaign by Always, MLB Commissioner Emeritus Bud Selig and his wife Sue, and the You Can Play Project
