|
|||
|
|||
|
 |
|
|
TURNING STONE RESORT CHAMPIONSHIPSeptember 30, 2009Robert AllenbyStephen BaldwinVERONA, NEW YORK MARK WILLIAMS: All right. Thanks for joining us, ladies and gentlemen. We're here to just discuss and make you aware of, as you probably already are, National Breast Cancer Awareness Month begins tomorrow, October the 1st. And one of the initiatives here is Carolyn Baldwin Foundation Research Fund of Central New York is a major beneficiary of the tickets to charity fund raising situation, and we're joined today by Stephen Baldwin, actor and Pro-Am participant, and Robert Allenby, who's the highest ranked player in the field here. And we just want to get some comments from both of them regarding the National Breast Cancer Awareness Month, and just get some comments from them and discuss the fund raising. We'll start with you, Stephen. STEPHEN BALDWIN: Well, as usual, I'm just so grateful to the Turning Stone organization for, again, continuing to do all the incredible philanthropy that they do, and I truly believe that they have been as successful and blessed as they have been in the many years that they have been giving back to the community here locally, I think it's largely to do with the fact that they really do give as much as they do. They have been over-the-moon incredible to the Carolyn Baldwin Breast Cancer Research Fund, and that is why myself and my family and my brothers continue to always make our best effort to do whatever we can for the Turning Stone and their organization. We're looking forward to an amazing event. This is going to be fun. I'm glad I'm in the p.m. group today. Hopefully the weather will clear up. I came back around yesterday morning, and the employees here at the Turning Stone, who I know all quite personally in the last 10 years, said, you ready, Stephen? You excited? How are you going to hit 'em? I said, once again, I'm going to be taking off the shelf that character that I play now and again called golfer, unlike this man right here, who is the real deal. It's just a thrill for me to be here. We're going to be playing with -- I'm going to be played with Trace Adkins later on today, and that's going to be neat. I think that here in the United States it's obviously a powerful reality with all the different things that are celebrated annually, from national holidays, et cetera, et cetera. But the sheer fact that breast cancer itself has been delegated and given its own month of awareness here in America, I think, is obviously a testimony to the severity to which this disease has made an impression, not only here in the United States, but around the world. I am from Long Island, New York. For whatever still unknown reason, the highest incidence of breast cancer in the United States is Long Island, New York. So it is not only an issue that my family takes personally because of my mother being a survivor, but also because we are born and bred and raised in Massapequa, Long Island. So it's just a great thrill and an honor and a passion of myself and our family to be involved with Breast Cancer Awareness Month for multiple reasons. No. 1, men can get breast cancer. They don't even know that. And again, the numbers become more staggering each and every year with young girls, young women. The ages are getting younger and younger and younger of these women who are being affected and impacted by this disease. The Carolyn Baldwin Breast Cancer Research Fund is dedicated to raising funds in order to give grants for the purpose of doing the medical research to find a cure. That is my mother's crusade. She doesn't back down. A lot of people don't know that she started this organization without the help of her sons, and by the time she had landed an interview on "The Rosie O'Donnell Show," we all said, well, gosh, we can't get on "The Rosie O'Donnell Show," so Mom, what do we need to do to help you? And I don't say that in the publicity aspect of that. It just showed how driven my mother was in order to continue to fight against this terrible disease. I also want to mention that during Breast Cancer Awareness Month, a wonderful vitamin product called Chews-4-Health is donating a significant amount of their sales for the month of October to the Carolyn Baldwin Breast Cancer Research Fund. I want to put that out there. It's a wonderful product. I used it myself, even before they agreed to do that. And anybody can go, I think it's orderchews.com is the website, orderchews.com. They can check out the product, understand what it is. And utilizing that product and making a purchase during this month, again, continuing to help us in the fight and help us raise the support and create more of an awareness of this disease, in order for us to continue our work. And for that we're very grateful and we're thankful to everyone involved. Thank you. MARK WILLIAMS: Robert, it's Breast Cancer Awareness Month, and I know it's been prominent on the TOUR with Phil Mickelson and Amy, his wife, and also his mother. There's probably a lot of other players not just on the PGA TOUR, that have been affected in some way with mothers, sisters, daughters, but other athletes around the world and other aspects. Can you make some comments? ROBERT ALLENBY: Yeah. Obviously we're very fortunate as players on the PGA TOUR that every week, every tournament that we come to, the local gathering that we get at each tournament raises a significant amount of money for charities, and obviously this week is definitely going to a fantastic cause. You know, with the likes of Phil and Amy Mickelson, that really put, at least for the PGA TOUR, it definitely put breast cancer awareness more out there, and it's definitely becoming more and more prominent. And I might be wrong, but I thought I heard that women today, more women die of breast cancer than any other cancer. I did hear -- yeah. So you know, I'm unfortunate that my mom passed away early this year from cancer. And you know, it's going to get us all, and the more awareness we can put out there, whether it's breast cancer or any type of cancer, I mean obviously the scientists and all that are all -- everyone's working as hard as they can in all different areas to try and find a cure for this terrible disease. You know, for myself, for the last 18 years, I've raised money for kids with cancer, and you know, I started that when I was like 19 years of age. So you know, I've been doing that for a long time, so I've been involved, and I know what kids are going through, and you know, dealing with such a terrible disease as cancer. You know, it was only last weekend for myself, there was a fishing tournament down in West Palm Beach where I live, and it was a breast cancer tournament, and it was a women's fishing tournament for Susan Komen Breast Cancer Foundation down there in West Palm. And you know, I couldn't fish in the tournament. I had other commitments with my kids, but I went to the party on a Saturday night, and you know, I just asked how much are we going to raise here tonight and all that sort of stuff. And they said they're hoping to get about 50,000. So obviously knowing that the Presidents Cup was coming up and we get a fair amount of money to donate to charity and stuff, so I donated 25,000 to the Breast Cancer Foundation down there at Palm Beach. So it's only fitting that I would be here today sitting here, and it's all about trying to get as much awareness out there and trying to get more and more of the population and more of the world involved, and eventually hopefully one day finding a cure for this terrible disease. MARK WILLIAMS: If anybody's interested in asking a question, we'll let you use the microphone here so we can get it transcribed. Thank you. Q. Stephen, I want to ask you, you mentioned that your mother's a breast cancer survivor. Talk about how hard it was when you found out breast cancer hit your family and kind of how important it is to you to eradicate it. STEPHEN BALDWIN: Well, actually, I'm married to the same woman for the last 19 years, which in my industry is a hole-in-one, and very unusual to have worked as many years in Hollywood and still maintain a healthy home and family and marriage, et cetera, et cetera. One month before my wedding was when my mother got the news that she had breast cancer. She was unfortunately unable to do anything about it at the time, had to actually literally wait until after the wedding in order to start the process of chemotherapy and radiation and all those very difficult solutions that one has to experience. So for me it's obvious, you know, that with it hitting home and my mom, my sister Elizabeth, who runs my mother's organization, also is a survivor. And I could just never list the number of people almost around the world that's stopped me in airports or places like that and say the words to me, you know, aren't you Stephen Baldwin, and I'll say yes. And sometimes that is followed up by either a photo or signature of some kind, but it's powerful to have somebody look at you and say, you know, your mother by some six degrees of separation was in touch with a family member of mine and they worked together and heard about my relative's situation, and your mom made some cookies and came over and sat down and held my sister's hand or held my mother's hand. And this is the type of thing that touches me more than anything, you know. It's not just about finding a cure. That's something we know that's going to happen. We feel very confident that with the number of grants that have been given and the millions that have been raised already by the organization in order to achieve that goal. It's just -- it's wonderful that in the fight is also the fight and the spirit of it which is us doing unto others as they would have done unto them. It's just a powerful network that's been created. And my heart really is motivated to want to continue to be a part of weaving that fabric and creating that quilt, so to speak, of those who are bonded and united. And now I kind of feel, honestly, that even today going forward, whatever I can do for this gentleman and that cause, I'm here to do that, because as he said, breast cancer is a leading cause of death amongst cancer with women. And it's just, you know, we gotta fight it. We gotta do whatever we can. And I'm more than happy to commit myself to be on the front lines of that battle as best I can, because equally as important as finding a cure is being there to help comfort those who are in need in regard to the suffering that comes with it. Q. You mentioned that Turning Stone has helped you quite a bit with raising money for this over the years. Can you just give us an estimate of kind of how much they've contributed from overall fundraisers you've done over the years with golf tournaments and what have you? STEPHEN BALDWIN: You know, I couldn't be sure. I know that the overall number of funds that have been raised that in turn has been utilized in the grant-giving process for the medical community to do the research to find a cure, I'm going to safely say that I know it's at least $2 million, and those grants are 50,000 at a time. So that's a significant amount of grants in the years that we've been doing this. I think it's actually 3 million, but I'm not sure. The coffee hasn't kicked in here yet this morning and I don't want to say something that's not completely accurate. I would think it would be fair to say in that equation, just from the Upstate chapter of my mother's organization, which is the Carolyn Baldwin Breast Cancer Research Fund of Central New York, the downstate Long Island chapter as well, and I don't know those numbers, but I would easily say that a million dollars of that $2 or 3 million that has been raised by the Central New York organization, a million of it, I would say, could easily be within all the points that have been touched through the network of all that effort, a million of it has to be as a result of all that has been done by Turning Stone. So there are no words to express the gratitude we have for Turning Stone. This organization is just, you know, unequalled in my opinion. MARK WILLIAMS: Just before we wrap it up, Robert, I know that on Sundays you traditionally wear a pink shirt in honor of your mother. And tomorrow being the first round, October the 1st, there's a "pink out" where everyone's encouraged to wear pink. Do you have something extra in your wardrobe for tomorrow? I know there's probably going to be a lot of pink rain suits around. ROBERT ALLENBY: I've got two pink shirts this week. But that's all right. I'd wear pink every day. I'm not afraid to wear pink. You know, yeah, I've got a pink shirt for tomorrow and also got a pink jumper as well. They even gave us some pink socks. So that'll look good with black. MARK WILLIAMS: All right. I appreciate your time coming in and discussing this with us. End of FastScripts |
|
||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
About ASAP Sports •
FastScripts Archive •
Recent Interviews •
Captioning •
Upcoming Events •
Contact Us
FastScripts | Events Covered | Our Clients | Other Services | ASAP in the News | Site Map | Job Opportunities | Links |
|
ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297
|