Basketball Player, Tina Charles: Donates Half of Salary for Charity. What's She Saying About Rio Olympics?
Tina Charles is an American basketball player and also has established a foundation, the Heart of Hope Foundation that distributes Automated external defibrillators (AED) to schools. Despite being star basketball player, she is a humanitarian. She has proved time and again that humanity doesn't die until people like Tina keeps doing the noble works.
Donated half of the Salary for Charity:
The New York native player donated half of her WNBA salary to a charity Tina Charles' foundation. Tina started the charity to honor her aunt, who then lost her life because of multiple organ failures in 2013.It is true indeed Tina’s salary isn’t equal to her male counterparts in WNBA, but it hasn’t stopped her to donate her salary to a good cause. That is will and courage she got when it comes to charity.
Charles has already been directly involved in buying 142 automatic external defibrillators over the past few years. Charles has already stated she will donate $50,000 for second straight season.
Regarding helping others,Charles said-
"It means a lot just to keep the awareness out there about sudden cardiac arrest. Taking an interest in others is key in my life. It's my way of giving back. My passion of placing AEDs. Anything I can do to impact an institution with an AED is extremely important to me."
In an article published by USA TODAY on April 1, 2013, Charles said she wants to make a life-long impact helping those in need.
"I believe that God gives you what you need to be able to give others what they need. I always put myself last. I think the thing about life is not how much money you make or how famous you are but whether you're able to impact somebody's life."
Hopey's Heart, The foundation provides health education, CPR training and lifesaving AEDs in schools and also has established communities and recreational centers. The foundation is a tribute to Charles aunt and also to a high school basketball player in Michigan who died in 2011 because of sudden cardiac arrest after the moment of hitting the winning shot for his team.
At a meeting of EuroLeague Women's general managers in April 2015, FIBA Europe President Turgay Demirel commented saying,
"I commend Tina Charles for all of the great work she does through Hopey's Heart Foundation. Tina is a fantastic example of a basketball player making a difference on and off the court, and this project is a welcome contribution to our efforts to provide the safest possible playing environment for our athletes."
Supporting Black Lives Matter and Rio Olympics:
After a rocky and steady end of the first half of the WNBA season, she protested with printed t-shirts supporting Black Lives Matter. But now Tina Charles said she can just focus on basketball now and is excited to bring back the gold.
Caption: Tina Charles Excited to Represent Team USA at 2016 Rio Olympics.
The reason behind it is because USA Basketball addressed the issue of race relations and policing in the country by putting the men and women’s team together for a summit to be led by Carmelo Anthony last month.
“I believe USA Basketball did a great job doing that and in handling it and addressing it fresh from the start,” she said.
“And our focus is just how can we win a gold medal.”
The focus has indeed paid off. Tina Charles and her team have won gold in Rio Olympics with USA basketball team stronger than ever.
Tina Alexandria Charles's Short Bio:
Tina Alexandria Charles (born on December 5, 1988) is an American basketball player for the New York Liberty of the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) and also plays for Fenerbahçe of the TWBL along with USA national player.
Charles came into limelight as she was drafted first in 2010 WNBA draft. Charles started playing basketball at Christ the King High School in Middle Village, New York and was named WBCA national player of the year. She was also named WNBA most valuable player in 2012.