Celebrate Kevin Sorbo’s birthday by donating to A World Fit For Kids!

At this time last year I was at Kevin’s 3^rd Annual Kevin Sorbo Celebrity Golf Tournament benefiting his Los Angeles-based nonprofit foundation, A World Fit For Kids! (WFIT). I met so many interesting people and had a really great time. Kevin was a gracious host, making sure that everyone had fun, including himself.

Kevin often took a few moments throughout the three-day weekend, September 23-25, to praise WFIT, which he joined in 1997, first serving as its Board Chairperson and official spokesperson. He remains its official spokesperson and works hard to create awareness and raise funds for the organization.

He kindly offered a few words about WFIT and the Tournament.

“I’ve been doing A World Fit for Kids! for 15 years now,” said Kevin, “and it’s a wonderful nonprofit foundation that we’ve done really great things with. We’ve got a good program that deals with physical activity, fighting childhood obesity, grades, mentoring, self-esteem and positive reinforcement.”

Francis Palomo, a Teen Fit For Success Graduate, discussed his WFIT experience, and credited WFIT for giving him a chance at a life he never thought he’d have.

Today, he is a successful real estate agent with Century 21, which is a far cry from the life he described as a teenager.

“I felt like a name without a face, but that’s how you feel when you’re a teen growing up in the inner city,” Palomo said. “If you’re not in a gang, you stand alone. If you are in a gang, you can’t expect to live much beyond your 22^nd birthday. I felt like I couldn’t win.”

When Palomo got into trouble and had to do community service, he asked if he could work with WFIT at the local elementary school. It gave him the opportunity to be a leader and positively mentor younger kids, and after he completed his community service commitment, WFIT hired him as a coach.

“Having a job was good on the wallet, and it kept me out of trouble,” added Palomo, “but the real benefit I received was in the way that it changed my thinking. I learned that if you are committed, you can do anything. This is exactly what A World Fit For Kids! taught me, and they gave me the chance to learn and to be successful.”

“Kids are our future,” Kevin stated, “and I work with over 12,000 kids in L.A. County, which has a 54% drop-out rate. We have a 98% graduation rate with the 12,000 kids in our program. It’s good.

“We won an award from former Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger in 2007 for having the Best Afterschool Program in the state of California. We’re going nationwide with WFIT, which we’ve been talking about for a long time. We’ve been putting a five-year plan in place, and once we won this gold star from the Governor’s Office here in California, we’ve been inundated with people wanting to know about our program and what they do.”

Kevin’s exciting tournament, held at the Silverado Resort and Spa in beautiful Napa, CA, benefitted WFIT and consisted of a wine and cheese pairings party on Friday night, choice of attending a wine tour or the tournament on Saturday, Kevin’s birthday dinner (September 24!) and silent auction on Saturday night and an outdoor rock concert on Sunday. Celebrities and plain folks like me attended, and everyone enjoyed themselves immensely. It seemed like one, big happy family. Smiles and laughter abounded!

I asked Kevin how the idea of having a golf tournament began.

“The golf tournament idea was certainly mine,” he explained. “I’m a golf nut, so I hosted a few of them in New Zealand when I filmed ‘Hercules’ to raise money for kids with cancers of all kinds. It’s something I’d always wanted to do with WFIT, and we talked about it, but the timing or for whatever the reasons that we came up with we just never did it until 2008.

“Combining golf with such great a cause just makes for a fun way to raise awareness and money. I have always found that the people who play the game are usually people who value what this life has given them. It sounds corny, but there is no other sport where you meet others who value hard work, ethics, morality and fair play than those people whom I have met through the game of golf. Combine that with a shared love for the game and you have the makings of a charity event worth attending and making the difference in a sick or underprivileged child’s life.”

The Official Kevin Sorbo European Fan Club (OEKSFC) unites for the second year with the Fan Sponsorship for their Annual Birthday Project so that we can once again sponsor a golfer and maybe more at Kevin’s next Tournament.

Donations close September 30, in time to give Kevin his birthday present. They also have an online Birthday Book that’s free for you to write Kevin a nice birthday note.

Since Kevin’s upcoming Tournament was postponed from this year until sometime in the spring of next year, the OEKSFC will reopen donations after Christmas, date to be determined.

Please consider giving Kevin the best birthday gift of all by donating to this very worthy cause.

To donate:  http://tinyurl.com/977suz2

To sign the free online Birthday Book:  http://289674.multiguestbook.com/

More info about WFIT:  http://www.worldfitforkids.org/

(WFIT photo courtesy of WFIT; Tournament photos by Jan)