Newark Mayor and Senate hopeful, Cory Booker will be hitting the putting green for a good cause. Booker will host Newark Mentoring Movement’s (NMM) second annual Celebrity Golf Outing along with “LIVE with Kelly & Michael” co-host, Michael Strahan.
On Monday, July 15, 2013 at 10 a.m. some of the area’s most celebrated sports stars will come together at Liberty National Golf Club in Jersey City, NJ for a daylong golfing fundraiser. New York Giants’ David Diehl and Justin Tuck, Brooklyn Nets head coach Jason Kidd and point guard Deron Williams will join sportscaster Erin Andrews, former New York Giant, Tiki Barber, and former NBA player and coach, Isaiah Thomas, at the event aimed at raising awareness and money to support mentoring in Newark.
“Spending just one hour a week mentoring a child can have a huge positive effect on their life,” Booker said. “I’ve been a mentor since college and it hasn’t been an act of charity. It has enriched my life as much, if not more, than the young people I’ve worked with.”
Through its works as an ancillary organization, NMM, enhances Newark’s mentoring community and increases opportunities for youth to obtain qualified mentors. NMM provides training, technical assistance, networking, and resource development. As a citywide partnership that champions mentoring as a proven and necessary strategy for improving the lives of Newark’s youth, NMM also operates as a clearinghouse and referral source. The Celebrity Golf Outing helps the organization raise crucial operational and programming funds.
“NMM is grateful to have support from Mayor Booker and Michael Strahan who have graciously signed on as spokespersons since our inception in 2012, and from our Champion sponsors, United Airlines and Bloomberg,” explained Aaron Martin, Executive Director of Newark Mentoring Movement. “We all understand and truly believe that mentoring works and together we’re striving to bring a quality mentor to every deserving youth in the city."
The Celebrity Golf Outing has 19 foursomes registered to participate in the event. Each foursome is comprised of community members, local politicians, youth advocates, or volunteers and will become a team of five with the addition of one celebrity. Additional event sponsors include: Under Armour, Kenneth Cole, Aveeno, RoC, Don Julio, NFL, “LIVE with Kelly and Michael”, NY Giants, NFL on FOX, BNY Mellon, Vassilaros Coffee, Bobbi Brown, and Trump Hotel.
“Mentoring across the board empowers our kids to succeed” Booker said. “I have seen the data that is unequivocal, it is a powerful impact of just having a caring adult in somebody’s life for four hours a month.”
Attendance at the Celebrity Golf Outing is by invitation only. For more information or to make a donation please visit www.newarkmentoring.org
ABOUT NEWARK MENTORING MOVEMENT
The Newark Mentoring Movement, a 501 (c)(3) nonprofit organization, based in Newark, N.J., is. With the ambitious goal of serving 10,000 Newark area youth annually by 2017, NMM strives to embed the culture of mentoring into the local community. The Newark Mentoring Movement uses a three-tiered approach to increase mentoring throughout the city. NMM engages local service providers to ensure that evidence based research is incorporated into their curriculum and overall business plan. Secondly, NMM focuses on engaging the corporate community to alleviate the mentee bottleneck through various mentor recruitment efforts. Lastly, NMM seeks out and introduces national mentoring organizations such as iMentor, to Newark.