WNBA Star Tina Charles Donates Half Her Salary to Charity
NBA stars get a lot of hoopla for their charitable acts and philanthropic gestures, but nothing comes close to what WNBA player Tina Charles is doing.
The New York Liberty player truly put her money where her good intentions are, donating a full half her of salary to charity. That's $50,000 (don't even get us started on the paltry contracts the league offers its athletes compared to what even NBA benchers get paid) per year for a charity she started in the name of her aunt, who died from multiple organ failure in 2013, the Associated Press reported this week.
And this won't be the first time Charles has been this generous. Last season, she donated $50,000 to Hopey's Heart, her foundation honoring Wes Leonard, a high school basketball player who died of a sudden cardiac arrest in 2011 after hitting a game-winning shot. It provides health education, CPR training and automatic external defibrillators (AEDs) for schools and community recreation centers.
"Taking an interest in others is key in my life," she told AP. "It's my way of giving back. My passion of placing AEDs. Anything I can do to impact an institution with an AED is extremely important to me."
The next time we're tempted to put major athletes on a pedestal for the smallest of gestures, we'll think of the sacrifice Charles has made and the size of her heart.
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