Austin Tennis Academy News

February 5, 2007

Philanthrophy Day Awards Luncheon

I recently attended the Philanthropy Day Awards Luncheon, hosted by the Association of Fundraising Professionals Greater Austin Chapter.

I was there to support A Glimmer of Hope Foundation, the nonprofit organization that we have committed to raising $1,000,000 for over the next 20 years.

A Glimmer of Hope Foundation was honored as Outstanding Philanthropic Foundation of 2007. For those of you who have not heard Donna or Philip Berber speak about A Glimmer of Hope's mission, you can explore the Glimmer website. I was pleased to represent the ATA community at this function in support of all of you who have contributed to A Glimmer of Hope this past year. I was especially proud to represent those of you who helped raise over $30,000 to build wells in Ethiopia, to provide clean water for the rural poor.

The entire program was exceptional, among those honored were Bettye and Bill Nowlin, The Dell Foundation, Beth Tracy of IBM, the Assistance League of Austin, Cyndi and Bill Bock, Loretta Holland of CFRE, Boone Baker and Chef Elmar Prambs of the Four Seasons Hotel, in addition to A Glimmer of Hope Foundation. The story of each and every one of these recipients was inspiring.

I was proud of our association with A Glimmer of Hope Foundation. I am very proud of the job we are doing, teaching the children in the Austin Tennis Academy program to give back to their community through their involvement in programs like Camp Glimmer and fundraising for wells. And, I am proud of our students and their families involvement in giving back to the Austin community. It makes our city a better place to live and grow.

In March Donna Berber will be visiting practice to give us an update on the wells that we raised money for last year. I will let you know when the timing of that talk is scheduled.

I will leave you with a line from Philip Berber's acceptance speech that stuck with me and will probably stick with me for a while. He was talking about the work he and the entire Glimmer team does and quoted Mother Theresa:

"I don't fundraise, I beg for the poor."

Philip, it's our honor to help you.

Jack Newman
CEO
Austin Tennis Academy

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