Tag Archives: Best Buddies

Name Dropping – My Whereabouts

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I am not gate crashing. I have an invite and will be at the White House today with the President and First Lady.

It is National Mentoring Day and my Best Buddy, Ken Holden, and I have been chosen to attend a session at the White House. We are truly honored. We are thrilled to generate interest around Best Buddies and eBuddies as well from this event. Click here for more details on Best Buddies.

I will blog more about the event after its conclusion.

I was invited. I am not crashing the party. I swear. :-)

Special Olympics and Best Buddies

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The Shriver family is very special. Mr. and Mrs. Shriver have helped more people via founding the Special Olympics and the Peace Corps than perhaps any other couple in US history. Their son, Anthony Shriver, founded and still leads Best Buddies, a charity we have supported for a long time. I also have a long standing relationship with Big Ken Holden, my e-Buddy. We email and talk every single day courtesy of Best Buddies.

Tim Shriver runs Special Olympics. Bobby Shriver founded RED with Bono.

Maria Shriver is the first lady of California and a best-selling author and journalist. We were classmates at Georgetown University together. I remain friendly with the entire family. There is no family I respect more than the Shriver’s.

You can imagine the collective groan we all made when our President made a joke – at the expense of people with special needs - last week on the Jay Leno show.

I know the President called the Shriver family afterwards to offer his apologies and to also re-commit to spending stimulus dollars to help drive better educational programs in public schools for families with these one of a kind needs. For all of that, we are grateful.

Words matter. Words can hurt and I bet any one of a dozen Special Olympians could beat our President at bowling to boot. :-)  Check out how you can help Special Olympics today. Click this link.

End of an Era

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The last Best Buddies Ball took place this past weekend at the Shriver’s home. It is the end of an era. This Washington Post article captured the feelings of the attendees quite well.

I was honored to work with and support this group over the last dozen years.

I intend to keep working with them and to keep my e-Buddies relationship going with Big Ken Holden.  Big Ken and I correspond by email two to three times per day.

The Shrivers are amazing people. I consider them dear friends and am proud of all they do to make the world a better place to live.

Pray for Senator Kennedy

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Ted Kennedy was at Cape Cod helping Anthony Shriver on a Best Buddies event when he was stricken with a seizure. We now know he has a form of brain cancer and the prognosis is not promising.

But I know the Senator. He is a battler. He is tough as nails. He will fight this disease with grace, dignity and with humor and class. We should all pray for him. He is a great guy and a man who honestly has helped countless people in so many ways.