April 22, 200521 yr MIAMI -- Alonzo Mourning says he is donating his Miami Heat salary for the 2005 season to charities that serve the city's underprivileged youth and help poor kidney patients. Mourning, a former Heat all-star who rejoined the team in March as a backup center, will give about $300,000 to organizations that promote literacy and education for poor youths. That represents the Heat's share of his NBA veteran minimum salary of $1 million, which is shared with his former team, the New Jersey Nets. Other donations are earmarked for charities that provide food to poor kidney dialysis patients. Mourning, whose basketball career was interrupted by bouts of kidney disease, received a kidney transplant in December 2003. Mourning said Thursday that his main goal in donating his Heat salary is to publicize the work being done by a variety of organizations in South Florida. ``The impact of the money is important, but it's also to create awareness about the impact these organizations are having on people's lives,'' he said. ``The more we are able to make people aware of that, the more likely we are to find solutions for these problems.'' The donations will be made through Mourning's foundation, Alonzo Mourning Charities, which he founded in 1997 to assist a variety of charitable organizations in South Florida, New Jersey and the Hampton Roads, Va., area where he grew up. The foundation has donated or raised more than $1.5 million for Miami's Children's Home Society over the past nine years. ``His generosity has kept this center open, basically,'' said Mirta Fuentes, director of the Allapattah Neighborhood Center, an arm of the Home Society. ``We work with high-risk kids here, and he understands their needs. He genuinely cares about this community.'' Mourning said many of these programs aim to help youths who are in danger of dropping out of school, partly because they don't feel valued by society. ``Some of these kids need more attention than others. And with some of these programs, we can have a direct effect on these kids,'' he said. ``It helps the kids in knowing that somebody cares.'' ___ On the Net: Alonzo Mourning Charities: http://www.amcharities.org http://www.sun-sentinel.com/sports/sfl-421...la-sports-front
April 22, 200521 yr an article that big for a measly $300k donation? some dude donated $100 million to the med school and got a couple lines more than that.
April 22, 200521 yr it's just his Heat's salary he is donating(still a very nice gesture) but there is another $700k he is pocketing
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