Players give back to charity

Musthofid ,  The Jakarta Post ,  Nusa Dua, Bali   |  Mon, 11/09/2009 3:23 PM  |  Sports

It could have been a beauty pageant, with a line of young women in evening dresses, standing on a stage at a luxury hotel.

Instead, it was for a good cause as tennis players turned out at a charity gala during the Commonwealth Bank Tournament of Champions. The highlight of Saturday night was an auction of items donated by stars of the sport, with proceeds going to the Bali-based Smile Foundation which provides corrective surgery to low-income people with facial deformities.

Up for bids was a piece of pottery signed by the 13 players participating in the Bali event, pairs of shoes from Kimiko Date-Krumm and the Williams sisters, a shirt from Maria Sharapova and racket donated by Dinara Safina.

Annie George Livesey, who led the auction, gave background on the items.

"Maria wore this shirt during a tournament in Japan. This is just Safina's regular racket," she said. "They were at the US Open," she added of the Williams' sisters shoes, Venus' distinguished by a silver stripe, Serena's by a flash of pink.

While Serena, Venus and Maria were not in attendance, Date-Krumm, who was a wildcard in Bali and is back on the Tour at the age of 39, was at the dinner.

"I always want to help children," the Japanese said, adding she had established an elementary school in Laos.

"I started the school this year, with my husband. When I stopped tennis I taught kids in Japan and also went to poor countries like, Laos, Vietnam and several in Africa."

She was touched by the image of a person with a facial deformity, which was flashed on a giant screen as the bidding got under way.

"When I saw the picture, I wanted to put my hand up *to bid* . maybe not this time," she said.

"I used them until last week before I came here. I used during tournaments in Osaka and Tokyo," she added of her shoes, which went for US$1,000..

The charity gala raised $11,200 in all, which included Serena's shoes fetching $1,300, $400 more than Venus' footwear, Safina's racket bringing in $1,000, and the signed piece of pottery and one made by Sabine Lisicki both going for $2,000.

Not surprisingly, the night's biggest draw went was shirt of the game's glamour girl Sharapova, with the hammer finally going down on a bid of $3,000.

Mary Northmore, who established the foundation and is its chairman, was grateful for the contribution, saying it would help make a better life for poor individuals who otherwise could not afford reconstructive surgery.

"I hope we can help. We should be careful about spending money. We count every rupiah because we have to think about the trust of the donators," the Australian-born naturalized Indonesian said.

In an interview published in The Jakarta Post in October 2007, she described how corrective surgery changed people's lives.

"The simple act of eating and drinking can be denied to these people; looking in the mirror, putting on makeup, feelings of being punished for unknown sins, being disadvantaged in everything. The ideal of beauty operates all over the world and aberrations (like these) are not well received."

In its first four years of existence, the foundation mostly helped people in Bali and Lombok, but now is planning to extend services to other parts of Eastern Indonesia.

Even though most of them were out of the tournament, players were happy to do their part to help out.

"I think they need help and this is when we can find something for them," Spaniard Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez said.

German 20-year-old Sabine Lisicki gave a beaming smile as she held aloft her piece of pottery and Livesey did the honors with the bids.

Perhaps she was thinking that her simple act of generosity will help put a smile on the face of others.

Copyright © 2008 The Jakarta Post - PT Bina Media Tenggara. All Rights Reserved.