Reality stars to play soccer here for charity
From al.com by Alec Harvey
Stars of “Survivor,” “American Idol” and other reality TV series will participate in a charity soccer match in Birmingham in April.
Ethan Zohn, a former pro soccer player who won the third season of “Survivor,” and Constantine Maroulis, an “American Idol” finalist the year that Helena’s Bo Bice was runner-up, were in town Monday promoting the Grassroot Soccer Reality All Stars Festival.
It’s the fifth festival to come out of Zohn’s Grassroot Soccer, a non-profit organization that trains Africa’s professional soccer players to teach children about HIV/AIDS prevention. The festival will benefit Kick AIDS, Grassroot Soccer’s campaign to teach American students about the global HIV/AIDS epidemic.
“This puts to use all of my passions in life: soccer and kids and spreading the word about AIDS,” says Zohn, 33.
Zohn had played soccer in Zimbabwe before competing on “Survivor: Africa,” which led to a $1 million prize.
“While I was on the show, I played hacky sack with some kids” in Kenya, Zohn says. “Later, I found out that they were all HIV-positive.”
That helped him decide what to do with his monetary windfall.
“As a 27-year-old kid in New York, I’m thinking flat-screen TVs and PlayStations,” he says, “but in the cutthroat environment of `Survivor,’ I had a real-life experience.”
In Birmingham, Zohn and his reality TV friends (including girlfriend Jenna Morasca, who won “Survivor: The Amazon”) will play against the UAB Lady Blazers soccer team, according to Jaime Primak of the public relations firm Wilbanks Elam, which is bringing the event to Birmingham.
The game will be at 1 p.m. April 28, followed that night by a dinner and auction. A nationwide contest, details of which will be announced later, will get participants to raise money for Grassroot Soccer.
The prize for the person who raises the most money? To be Maroulis’ companion at the auction and dinner.
Maroulis, 31, will sing the national anthem before the soccer game, which he’ll also play in.
“I grew up playing soccer in the New Jersey suburbs,” he says. “I’ll sing and play - and probably get hurt in the process.”
At the evening event, Maroulis will perform with the Little Memphis Blues Orchestra, the former band of the reigning American Idol, Taylor Hicks.
Tickets to the soccer match and dinner will be on sale soon at http://uabsports.cstv.com, Primak says. Other participants, as well as a location for the dinner and auction, will be announced soon, she says.
Rupert Boneham, winner of “Survivor: America’s Tribal Council,” is a regular at Zohn’s charity soccer matches and will likely play in this one, Zohn says.
Trista Rehn and Ryan Sutter, who met on “The Bachelorette” and later married in a splashy TV wedding, are also expected to play.
News staff writer Mary Colurso contributed to this story.