December 30, 2009 | Read Time: 1 minute
Mia Hamm, Lance Armstrong, Muhammad Ali, and Tony Hawk are among 55 professional athletes extending their competitive spirit to charity fund raising this holiday season.
Athletes for Hope, a nonprofit group that helps sports players get involved in charitable causes, is ginning up competition among the athletes to see who can raise the most for their charity of choice by mid-January.
The fund-raising challenge was kicked off by Heather Mitts, a player for the Philadelphia Independence soccer team, in a video on the organization’s Web site.
Athletes who attract the most money and the largest number of gifts get prize money — up to $10,000 — for their charities. UGive, a nonprofit group that encourages young people to volunteer, is putting up much of that money, along with other sponsors.
Fans can track the athletes’ fund-raising progress on a Web page created by Global Giving, a nonprofit group that is helping to run the competition.
Athletes for Hope has publicized the effort in part by trying to stir a debate about whether professional athletes have an obligation to give back.
Working with the Corporation for National and Community Service, the nonprofit group also seeks to encourage volunteerism among athletes on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, in January.
