Charlie's Community Mission

Whenever there are people or causes in need in the Big Apple community, you know that Charlie Ward will be there.

The Sporting News knew it in the summer of 2000 when it named Charlie one of its 99 “Good Guys In Sports”.

The NBA knew it in December 2000, when Charlie’s community efforts earned him the League’s “Hometown Hero of the Month” award.

And the Fannie Mae Foundation has known it in both of the last two years, teaming with the NBA to include Charlie among the nine finalists for the NBA Home Team Community Service Award in both 2001 and 2002.

“Our attitude plays a big part in our life,” Charlie once said. “If we don’t have a positive attitude, we won’t get anywhere in life.”

Ward, currently in his eighth year in New York and now the senior Knick in terms of continuous service with the club, has been exuding a positive attitude among the area’s young people since the day he arrived in town back in 1994. A listing of Charlie’s community efforts since he became a Knick would take up much more space than we have here, but here are some of the most recent:

This season, Charlie’s aWard Foundation has purchased 20 tickets for youth to every Knicks home game, ensuring that kids who may not normally have the opportunity to attend a game at Madison Square Garden are in attendance every time the Knicks play.

During last summer's home rebuilding in Harlem, Charlie Ward starts to break down the walls to make room for a new family to move in. MSG Photos

Charlie has been the Knicks’ Fannie Mae Foundation spokesperson for several years, and takes an active interest in the homes he helps renovate. Recently, he has actively assisted in rebuilding homes in Harlem and Brooklyn, working in tandem with the New York City Housing Partnership. In both 2001 and 2002, the Fannie Mae Foundation honored Charlie by including him among the finalists for their Home Team Community Service Award (Last year’s award was won by San Antonio’s Tim Duncan; this year’s winner will be announced later this season).

Ward has annually hosted scores of youth at summer basketball camps, and the summer of ’01 was no exception. In June, he hosted the fourth annual Charlie Ward Basketball Clinic and Youth Rally in his hometown of Thomasville, Ga. The next month, he presided over the fifth annual Charlie Ward Basketball Camp for boys in Erie, Pa., a week long sleepaway camp that hosted 300 boys aged 8-to-18, along with a week-long Girls Basketball Camp at Manhattan College. Over 60% of the attendees at the Boys and Girls Camps are awarded scholarships through Charlie’s foundation.

In addition, Ward hosted a day-long event for youth from faith-based organizations at the 2001 NBA All Star Weekend in Washington, D.C., which included comedy performances and basketball clinics with several Christian athletes including teammate Allan Houston. The “Slammin’ Jammin’ Basketball Festival” was conceived and funded by Charlie and the athletes of CAUSE.

Charlie Ward visits PS 44 in Staten Island in December 2001. MSG Photos

As part of the ongoing “Knicks Reading Zones” program, Charlie joined his wife Tonja and son Caleb at PS 44 in Staten Island in December. Ward read the book Flip & Flop to the students and demonstrated his arts and crafts skills by showing the 30 second-graders how to create snowflakes out of paper and scissors. In February, Charlie accompanied civil rights pioneer Ruby Bridges and *NSYNC's Justin Timberlake to a Knicks Reading Zone school to read to students from "The Story of Ruby Bridges."

Five days after the horrific terrorist attacks of Sept 11, 2001, Ward joined teammates Allan Houston and Mark Jackson and Knicks president and general manager Scott Layden in a day-long series of visits to five city firehouses.

Then in March 2002, Charlie and teammate Shandon Anderson each donated $5,000 to the Aviation Volunteer Fire Company, whose only fire truck was damaged during the terrorist attacks.

“When you hear some of these stories the only thing you want to do is help,” Ward said. “These are people who go to work every day and put their lives on the line.”

During the Christmas season, Ward attended a holiday party for youth at New Jersey’s Grace Pentecostal Church, and hosted a similar party at Montefiore Children’s Hospital in The Bronx, where he distributed gifts from each child’s personal holiday wish list. At Thanksgiving, Charlie and wife Tonja perennially serve a traditional holiday feast at area homeless shelters.

In recent months, Ward has also emerged as an active supporter of such causes as the Christian Businessman’s Association, the MDA’s Muscle Team Benefit, the First Choice Group (a grass roots organization that recruits and trains black and Latino professionals to be mentors) and the Services for the Undeserved benefit dinner, in addition to his long-standing participation in the Starlight Foundation and the Garden’s Cheering for Children Foundation.

Of course, this list is by no means complete. That will be an impossible task, so long as athletes like Charlie Ward keep on giving.