Bobcats Sports & Entertainment President & Chief Operating Officer Fred Whitfield, along with Novant Health Chief Consumer Officer Jesse Cureton, will host more than 500 guests at the Hilton Charlotte City Center on Saturday, October 26, 2013, for the sixth annual “My Hero Gala” black tie fundraiser to support the Novant Health Community Care Cruiser and the Cats Care Foundation. This year’s event will be presented by Deloitte and features a live auction as well as Bobcats players, coaches and executives in tuxedos, gowns and basketball shoes. In honor of their contributions to the community, awards will be given to Community Activist and the former Executive Director of the North Carolina Council for Women Jill Dinwiddie, Human Resource Management and Workforce Strategy Manager, Early Talent Programs & Performance Culture at Duke Energy Corporation Jenny Ward, Novant Health Hemby Neonatal Intensive Care Unit Medical Director Larry Brady, MD, and Charlotte Bobcats center Brendan Haywood. This year’s shining star award will be giving to the Jamie Kimble Foundation for Courage.
This year’s Community Hero recipient, Jill Dinwiddie has served on ten different local boards in various cities, five state-wide boards, two multi-state boards and two national boards ranging from women’s, international education/intercultural and arts organizations to a community foundation. She has worked on four state-wide political campaigns—two US Senate races, one State Superintendent of Public Schools race and one governor’s race. Since moving to Charlotte in 2003, Jill has served on the board of Lillian’s List of NC and the NC Domestic Violence Commission, and currently serves on the boards of Levine Museum of the New South in Charlotte, Planned Parenthood Health Systems, NC Arts Council, Women’s Impact Fund and is a member of Women Executives in Charlotte. In November, 2009, she was appointed by Governor Perdue to the full time position of Executive Director of the NC Council for Women. She recently retired from that position and returned to Charlotte. Jill serves as co-chair of the eNOugh campaign to end domestic violence across various community sectors.
Recognized as one of the Charlotte Business Journal’s “40 Under 40” professionals to watch in Charlotte, this year’s Community Hero recipient Jenny Ward is responsible for culture integration for the Progress Energy merger and building a performance culture to support the mission, values and strategic priorities of the nation’s largest energy provider and #2 investor-owned utility in the world. Jenny was appointed by North Carolina Governor Beverly Perdue to chair the NC Council for Women, a state agency serving women across four regions in North Carolina. Her community service spans board participation for the following organizations: Girl Scouts Hornets’ Nest Council, Safe Alliance, Women Executives for Community Service, the Catawba Lands Conservancy, Planned Parenthood Health Systems four state affiliate and the NC Governor’s Conference for Women. She also serves as co-chair for the eNOugh campaign to end domestic violence in North Carolina, a public-private community model focused on prevention and education of domestic violence across various community sectors. In 2011, Jenny was awarded the ATHENA Young Professional Leadership award. This year’s Healthcare Hero recipient, Dr. Larry Brady has tirelessly dedicated his time, knowledge and energy to Charlotte’s most vulnerable and tiny patients, serving more than 10,000 babies within Novant Health’s Neonatal Intensive Care Units (NICUs) over the last 26 years. Dr. Brady cared for the world’s fourth smallest baby born to survive, weighing only 9.6 ounces upon entering the world, who was able to leave the hospital with her family 183 days later. Under Dr. Brady’s leadership, Novant Health Presbyterian Medical Center’s Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) has grown from a small unit serving 10 to 12 babies per day, to an American Academy of Pediatrics certified level IV NICU serving 600 newborns each year with advanced technology, skill and compassion. Dr. Brady was recognized as a 2013 Physician of the Year by the Charlotte Business Journal and has been nominated by his peers as one of Charlotte’s “Top Docs” for five consecutive years.
This year’s Sports Hero recipient, Charlotte Bobcats center Brendan Haywood, whose mother was a single parent, established the Brendan Haywood Single Parents Fund, which aims to support programs that assist underprivileged single parent families. After joining the Bobcats in the summer of 2012, Haywood immediately immersed himself in the local community. In February 2013, he announced he would pay the electric bills for one year for 15 single mothers and their families who are participating in the rapid re-housing program through the Salvation Army’s Center of Hope Women and Children's Shelter. The rapid re-housing program offers women job resources and assistance in order to move from the shelter into market rate housing. Haywood knows that helping these women pay their electric bill gives them the chance to use their money towards savings and ultimately benefiting their children. More recently, Haywood gave away backpacks and school supplies to 100 children at the Center of Hope and made a donation to the shelter to go toward bus fare for residents, which is one of the shelter’s biggest challenges.
Jamie Kimble Foundation for Courage is named after Jamie Kimble, thirty-one year old beloved daughter of Charlotte Deputy City Manager Ron Kimble and his wife Jan, who was murdered by her former boyfriend on Labor Day, 2012. Jamie was a person of faith, an ambitious worker, a loyal friend to all including her Tri-Sig Sorority Sisters, an avid sports fan and runner and a loving daughter who cared deeply for her family. She was a 2002 graduate of UNC-Chapel Hill with a degree in Public Health and had recently been promoted by Coca-Cola Consolidated of Charlotte to assume a Director position in Dallas, Texas. Jamie's smile and zest for life were matched only by the selfless manner in which she served others. She also showed tremendous courage to leave a mentally abusive relationship. Upon her death, Jamie's parents established The Jamie Kimble Foundation for Courage to raise awareness of domestic violence issues, to help other victims of abuse, and to fund innovative programs that will curb the spread of domestic violence. The Jamie Kimble Scholarship for Courage has also been established in her honor at Chapel Hill. The Jamie Kimble Foundation for Courage will received this year’s shining star.
Bobcats Sports & Entertainment owns the Charlotte Bobcats and operates Charlotte’s Time Warner Cable Arena.
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