Harold Robinson Foundation
This is a compilation of the fantastic stories done by KTLA about Pedal on the Pier 2018 and The Harold Robinson Foundation. Thank you KTLA and Gayle Anderson for the wonderful coverage.
Morningside 5 is an ESPN, 30 for 30, directed by Mike Tollin, featuring one of our beloved counselors Dwight Curry. The film is a unique story that chronicles the lives of five men through a 25-year window. It not only depicts the passion they had for the game of basketball, but also documents how they coped with being local celebrities at the tender age of 18 and what came of their lives once the ball stopped rolling. The story is about over- coming adversity and is a message Dwight is able to carry to our students. Morningside 5 also features our foundation and our founder, Jeff Robinson.
Joyce Hyser Robinson, co-founder of the Harold Robinson Foundation, joined us with details on the’The Markham Project’. The project includes hosting a weekend retreat with 100 students from Markham Middle School. Through this project Joyce shares the importance of getting inner city youth out of their negative surroundings, exposing them to nature and to help promote confidence, trust and team building.
If you are interested in getting involved with the Harold Robinson Foundation you can pre-register for their “Pedal On The Pier” event taking place on June 1st, at the Santa Monica Pier.
LAKE HUGHES, Calif. —
What does swimming, rope climbing and camping have to do with fighting gang violence? Everything, according to the owner of a kids camp in Lake Hughes. More than 100 inner city kids are at Canyon Creek Camp in an effort to stop the cycle of gang violence in South Los Angeles. Jeff and Joyce Robinson own the camp.
“They are not having a childhood and they come up here and they have a chance at a childhood,” said Joyce Robinson.
For many of the 118 kids who stepped off a bus Friday morning at the camp, it was their first time away from the housing projects, the gangs and the violence that are too often a part of their daily lives.
“We are working toward something that is really historical,” said Joyce Robinson.
The Robinsons believe nature and love can touch children’s lives to help break the cycle of gang violence and crime in the inner city, one child at a time.
“They have never seen mountains. They’ve never seen deer. They can’t even dream about these things because they don’t even know they exist,” said Jeff Robinson.
“It’s fun and wonderful. You get to go hiking and swimming and all that,” said Toria Weaver, a camp participant.
For four years now, Canyon Creek Camp has hosted more than 3,000 inner city kids throughout Los Angeles. The Harold Robinson Foundation, named in honor of Jeff Robinson’s late father, picks up the more than $250,000 price tag per year to show these kids they are not enemies from rival gang territory, but rather just kids who deserve a better life.
“I grew up like them so I know how hard it is,” said camp counselor Darlene Frontuto. “We were stuck in apartments or having to watch what street we crossed just in case that was an enemy’s territory.”
Camp counselor James Anderson says the camp has a positive effect on the kids.
“Every single time we have a retreat up here, it always ends with these kids having open hearts and their parents crying because they see something they don’t see in their neighborhoods, and that’s love,” said Anderson.
To donate to the Harold Robinson Foundation, visit www.haroldrobinsonfoundation.org.
New mom Hilary Duff and her sister Haylie Duff participated in the “Pedal on the Pier” charity event in Santa Monica, Calif on June 3.
One true statement about piers and things with wheels? They go way back.
Back to the invention of the boardwalk but probably even before then. Why? Because people like spinning through a beach-adjacent breeze. Science doesn’t even need to test that theory. Let’s call it simple fact.
But what of a mode of transport that is a) on a pier but b) doesn’t actually move? Either that’s a Ferris wheel or roller coaster or you’re at Pedal on the Pier, the annual multi-bike, multi-rider, multi-mile fundraiser for the Harold Robinson Foundation.
Pedal on the Pier will roll for 100 miles — roll in place, rather — on Sunday, June 2.Some 400 riders’ll take over the pedaling duties, while hundreds of non-riding attendees will gather to provide entertainment, music, and take over the general cheering-on duties.
How long will this take? Around five hours. How much money is Pedal on the Pier attempting to raise? Five hundred thousand dollars.
That half million dollars will go toward providing “underprivileged children free, year-round camp retreats where they experience nature and participate in diverse recreational programs designed to strengthen confidence and independence, build character and develop leadership skills.”
Want to register as a rider and raise funds? You can. Want to go and cheer people on? You can. Want to donate from right where you are? You can do that, too.
It’s rare to see a moving conveyance on the pier that isn’t technically moving, but, yep, if we were to say the whole day is moving, what with people coming together to raise money for something important, well. It would be hard to disagree with that sentiment.
Hi Beach Babes!! Hope you are having a fabulous Saturday :). We finished the 5 Day Slim Down and are off to a photo shoot today. Just wanted to share some pics from last weekend…
By Lori Corbin
LOS ANGELES —
Sweating and cycling for a good cause is the theme for a very physical fundraiser coming up on Sunday at the Santa Monica Pier. It’s the Pedal on the Pier.What looks like a typical cycling class is actually a warm-up for a very long and special ride.
“Hundred bikes, 100 butts, 100 miles — simulated miles,” said John Scarangello, who is supplying bikes for charity and riders for Pedal on the Pier.
“We call it physical philanthropy, because we are going to be literally going for six hours on the Santa Monica Pier, 100 miles, an average of 18 miles an hour,” said Jeff Robinson, Harold Robinson Foundation.
This year, they’ll pedal on the pier. Last year it was New York’s Central Park, and the year before that, it was a 100-mile road tour. Each bike is “bought” for $250 and is responsible for raising $1,500. The goal is to raise a half-million dollars to send about 1,000 inner-city kids to Canyon Creek Retreat Center, a camp about an hour outside of Los Angeles.
“I know that they’re going to get out of their normal environments, which are sometimes desperate, and get out,” said Scarangello. “It could be a life-changing event for some of these kids.”
“So 90 percent of the kids have never even swam before,” said Robinson. “They see the grass on the fields and they just roll on the grass before we start anything.”
Full-time philanthropist Jeff Robinson was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease six years ago. He takes pride in the physical effort as well as its rewards.
“I am on the meds, I work out, I take good care of myself, but working with kids has been my life’s work and it’s really been the best medicine I can take because I love what I do,” said Robinson.
So if you want to give it a go or simply watch others spin their wheels, you want to be at the Santa Monica Pier on Sunday for the 10 a.m. registration, and the cycling starts at 11. And remember it’s the pier, so bring sunscreen.
