American Idol winner, other celebs turn out for autism benef

MAMARONECK - On a day when Tiger Woods and Rocco Mediate battled for the U.S. Open title in California, singer Taylor Hicks was one of dozens of celebrities at Winged Foot Golf Club yesterday to raise an estimated $1 million for the Autism Speaks charity.

Hicks, who won the fifth season of "American Idol" and is guest-starring in "Grease" on Broadway, said the cause is important to him.


"One of my dad's best friend's sons has autism," he said, moments before practicing his swing at the driving range. "When I heard about this particular event, I wanted to make sure I got out and tried to get involved with it and bring some attention to the disease."

Autism spectrum disorders are developmental disabilities that impair social interaction and communication, and cause unusual behavior, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Former NBC Chairman Bob Wright and wife Suzanne co-founded Autism Speaks in 2005 after doctors diagnosed one of their grandchildren with autism. The charity's mission is to facilitate "global research into the causes, treatments and an eventual cure," according to its Web site.

Rye resident Kevin Murray founded the New York Celebrity Golf Challenge, which had its 10th anniversary this year. An Autism Speaks executive board member, Murray has a 15-year-old son, Owen, living with the disorder.

"Because of this event, we were able to provide a platform so that we could connect the autism community, giving it a greater voice," he said, "not just with researchers but on the ground in Washington and with the general public."

Returning to the New York Celebrity Golf Challenge for a fourth year, former New York Giants cornerback Jeremy Lincoln said he has two friends in Ohio who live with autism.

"It's something that hits close to home, and I really love being a part of it," said Lincoln, who said he picks up golf tips from former Giants teammate Phillippi Sparks and financial ones from Murray.

Trey Wingo, host of ESPN's "SportsCenter," made his first appearance at the golf benefit yesterday. He said that in addition to being friends with families affected by autism, he and his wife were concerned for a time that their daughter had the disorder.

"Thankfully, it turned out not to be the case, but we're very aware and very understanding of the situation," he said.

Other stars to appear at the event included former "ER" star Gloria Reuben; former New York Knicks guard John Starks; "Late Show with David Letterman" announcer Alan Kalter; former New York Giants tight end Howard Cross; news anchor Jack Ford; and actor Gregg Bello.

In addition to golf, the event featured gift bags, an evening reception and live and silent auctions, whose prizes included autographed sports memorabilia signed by athletes Derek Jeter, Fred Couples, Sandy Koufax, Brett Favre, Eli Manning, Pelé, Lawrence Taylor and Tony Hawk.

Practicing his swing a few spots away from Hicks was Scarsdale resident Andrew Ward, who works for a private-equity fund in Manhattan. He said he was pleased that celebrities donated their time to the cause.

"If you look at what's happened to Autism Speaks over the last two years - adding National Alliance for Autism Research and Cure Autism Now - and melding those all into Autism Speaks to help with kind of a grass-roots as well as a celebrity effort, I think certainly gives it a better perception in the public's mind and certainly better attention," he said.

http://lohud.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080617/NEWS02/806170350/-1/SPORTS

God love that boy, Jodie - this has to speak directly to your heart, huh?
~tyg

Yeah if more people would open there they would see the beauty he has to offer huh

Bravo to Taylor and the other celebs that turned out for this worthy cause. Quite a few of our idols do have big hearts and show it in many ways.

Taylor, way to go!

I have to say that I agree - it seems that the gentlemen and ladies who grace the Idol stage aren't inherently cruel or selfish and give of their hearts as much as they can, and that's definately cause to admire them.
~tyg

did yall read some of those comments -
they were nasty and rude!!!!!!!!!!!!

ok you know me i can't shut up. i had to put in my two cents worth and then put in two cents more.
what do yall think here was i out of line or hit the nail or the head?? be honest i can take it.
mae

not sure what your refering to that you said

my comments, i left comments about the article

I read them Mae, I almost joined just to comment as well but it's a worthless cause, because regardless of what Taylor does there are some that will bash him for unknown reasons, It's not worth getting upset about. I have no idea what the one poster was reffering to when she said Taylor was doing something unfavoriable. It's sad that this guy or any of these guys do this for such a wonderful reason and only get bashed for it. Some people will never learn and never give up..

i still say a lot of those comments are nasty and i don't know how lohud can let them remain.
one guy PhilR is extremely rude and is trying to bring Taylor's career to an end. And the lohud ptb just let his comments go, like no big deal, lets let people make personal attacks on Taylor, and we really don't give a damn.

They don't care mae, that's the problem. If they would regulate what is said in most of these comments and especially about Taylor there would only be half the comments and then they wouldn't get as many enternet hits, and that's what their looking for, I don't read the comments to much anymore,, Just not worth it..

well i like for you to read mine i left on there, and come back here and tell me what you think

I did read your mae and I think you are spot on, but not every body reads with the same interest that I do, or for that matter care what they read. They post rude comments because that's the type of people they are, We dont' know what if anything these celebs gave as far as money to the cause, If they did good for them if not we'll never know it anyway.

I gave up on those sites. I tried to tell them that Tay was already at the studio for his own gig and was just messing with the fans for the jonas brothers.. that it wasnt his sign.. oh well they want to belive what they want.. screw em ya know.. Im sure Tays lawyers will be on top of it if it gets to bad

That's what I mean about haters, they will hate regardless of what is done or said. I quit reading the comments because it does no good..

here is my lastest and more then like last posting made there - then who knows sometimes i just can't shut up.

Replying to terranova:

To the good people at THE JOURNAL NEWS and lohud.com

I work with autistic children on a daily basis. It was nice to read your article about all of the kind folks here who gave their time to bring attention to this cause. I came here to post my appreciation and found a bunch of seemingly middle school aged bullies obsessing over just one of the celebrities. I hope that in the future, you will monitor these comments more carefully. It reflects badly upon The Journal/lohud.com.


This poster is right on target and this is exactly the point i was trying to make in both of my posting.
However lohud doesn't care that other posters just wants to bash and make personal attacks upon others. They don't care if some posters are trying to destory the careers of others. And what makes it any sadder is that they will use an article meant to call attention to important issues such as Autism and Autism Speaks to do so. And lohud is so irresponible that they let these poster get away with doing so.
I hope next time an article comes up that trying to draw people attention onto important issues that both the posters and lohud is more responible and stay focus on the topic. I am left with little respect for the posters that trying to harm another career and even less respect for lohud to let them do so and not taking any actions like maybe deleting their post.
Then again why would lohud care if they get more hits with these posting then that is really what they call about.
Autism is a real issue that affects real lives and in the future i hope to see with the posters and lohud show more responiblity, not making personal attacks and sticking to the subject matter.

That was very good mae, wonderful in fact, It's just to bad that more don't post things like that instead of the other.

i guess they really don't care, cause my posting is still there.
i know it is right on but still.