FOR IMMEDIATE
RELEASE
June 14, 1993
MICHAEL BOLTON
FOUNDATION TO AID CHILDREN AND WOMEN “AT RISK”
Columbia recording artist and
songwriter Michael Bolton today announced the establishment of The
Michael Bolton Foundation to benefit children and women “at
risk”. Bolton, a
multi-award winning entertainer, will debut his Foundation with a
Celebrity Tennis Weekend Benefit at the Burning Tree Country Club in
Greenwich, Connecticut, September 18-19, 1993.
Some of the biggest names in entertainment and sports,
including Andre Agassi, one of the world’s greatest tennis
players, will join Bolton for two days of tennis, softball, black
tie dinner and celebrity auction.
For Michael, who
has sold over 25 million albums worldwide and won numerous awards,
including two Grammys, one in ’89 and again in ’91 for “Best
Pop Vocal, Male”; a host of American Music Awards: “Favorite
Male Artist” and “Favorite Album” in ’92 and in ’93
“Favorite Male Artist, Pop/Rock” and “Favorite Artist, Adult
Contemporary”; and received six New York Music Awards including
“Best Male R&B Vocalist” in ’89 and ’90, felt compelled
to give back some of the good he’s been gifted to get.
“There are so many of us who are truly fortunate in many
ways. And there are
many of us who believe that giving something back and helping people
less fortunate than ourselves is simply…the right thing to do.
I was a New Haven city kid.
It took me 220 years to catch my break.
The Foundation will serve as an instrument of compassion to
give those less fortunate---those children and women who deserve a
chance for a better life. Every
day, on every front page, you see the pain, the hardship, the
hopelessness.”
Bolton began
sharing a portion of the proceeds of the sales of Timeless (The
Classics), his RIAA certified quadruple platinum album, by donating
$25,000 matched by Columbia Records, to the Harlem School of the
Arts in New York City. Included
among his many social service roles, he is the Honorary Chairman of
the National Committee for the Prevention of Child Abuse and
National Chairman of This Close for Cancer Research.
In donating much time and talent to numerous humanitarian
causes such as Cystic Fibrosis, The Pediatric Aids Foundation, The
Starlight Foundation, Ronald McDonald Children’s Charities, Boys
Choir of Harlem, Juvenile Diabetes, City Kids and the United Negro
College Fund, Michael Bolton perceived the need for a broader based
urban lifeline to address those hardships especially inherent to the
inner city populations from which he sprung as a youth.
The Mission of The
Michael Bolton Foundation is twofold:
Assistance of children and women at risk from the lethal
effects of poverty, and emotional, physical, and sexual abuse.
In 10992, three children per day died as a result of abuse
and neglect. Michael
Bolton believes, “…we have to break these cycles.
The needs out there are swelling but the resources to fill
them are shrinking.”
Michael sees
today’s youth struggling for direction, for a future.
His Foundation faces this challenge through a second goal:
To broaden opportunities for youth across socioeconomic and
multicultural lines by creating easy access to resources that foster
optimum personal development. The
Michael Bolton Foundation will invest in services and organizations
providing effective programs to promote self-esteem, empowerment and
leaderships skills, education and prevention of crime and substance
abuse, youth-directed awareness of environmental, global, health and
AIDS issues.
Proposals will be
accepted from providers of these targeted services throughout the
country beginning this fall and all such requests must include
program descriptions with specific objectives, methods of measuring
results, full disclosure and descriptions of populations to be
served by the endowment, additional funding sources, amount of grant
request, accreditation and budget certifications.
“My Foundation grants will be service-specific only,”
says Bolton. “More
than anything, I want to be able to see and to measure the improved
human condition my Foundation finances.”
For further
information, and non-profit organizations interested in receiving a
copy of the Mission Statement and Application Guidelines from The
Michael Bolton Foundation, contact Fran DeFeo at Columbia Records
Publicity Department in New York (212) 833-5784
