By Delinda Lombardo on
The 2008 Chris Evert/Raymond James Pro-Celebrity Tennis Classic was held at the Delray Beach Tennis Center, November 1-2nd, and once again proved to be a raging success – so much so, that tennis legend Chris Evert has now raised close to $20 million for charities!
The event kicked off with a Pro-Am at the Boca Raton Resort & Club tennis courts and attracted some new faces this year. Comedian Billy Crystal and 12-time Olympic medalist Dara Torres joined regulars such as Chevy Chase, Stone Phillips, Maeve Quinlan, Bud Collins, Vince Spadea, Alan Thicke, Jana Novotna, Gavin Rossdale, and Jon Lovitz.
Evert created the fundraising event to fight drug abuse and assist neglected and abused children in South Florida.
“What these treatment centers do is they get these women or men back into the mainstream of life, back on track, whether they’re gonna work, whether they want to go to school, whether they want to be great parents, whatever, it gets them back into mainstream of living,” says Evert. “Circumstances in life sometimes get you to a very low and a lot of people in the world, that’s how they reacted by turning to drugs and its not something that you should look down on and snub, it can happen to anybody.”
Chris Evert Charities partners with The Ounce of Prevention Fund of Florida, a public -private partnership administered with the State of Florida, to raise money for needy programs which otherwise would not be fully-funded by the State. The Ounce of Prevention Fund matches moneys raised through the Chris Evert/Bank of America Pro-Celebrity Tennis Classic.
While Chris has been busy with her own work at Chris Evert Charities, she also donates her time and efforts to other worthwhile programs including: The Special Olympics, The March Of Dimes, The Martina Navratilova Youth Foundation, The Michael Bolton Charities, The American AIDS Foundation, The Elton John AIDS Foundation, The Red Cross and The U.S. Olympic Ski Team.
Copyright © 2008 Look to the Stars
