Teddy Atlas holds a portrait of himself and his father, Dr. Theodore Atlas

Atlas fighting for people in need

NY Daily News, Tuesday, October 30th, 2007

Teddy Atlas turns ordinary people into champions of the underdog.

Every November for the past 11 years, Atlas, the noted boxing trainer and ESPN commentator, has held a fund-raiser for a truly special foundation that honors the name of his late father Dr. Theodore Atlas, who selflessly ministered to the poor of the forgotten borough.

This is hands-down the best charity in town. Every dime you donate reaches the people for which it is intended. None of it disappears into the rabbit hole of three-martini lunches or padded salaries. All of it goes to the downtrodden that fall through the bureaucratic cracks of the established charities, some of whom deliver a mere dime on a dollar to the needy.

This year, on Nov. 15, at the Hilton Garden Inn New York/Staten Island, when you plunk down your $200 to eat and drink and rub elbows with Bill Parcells, Eric Mangini, Gerry Cooney, John McEnroe, Larry Holmes, Arturo Gatti, Evander Holyfield and dozens of other sports legends, you will be helping common folk down on their luck get off the canvas and back into the game of life.

"We raised and distributed over $3 million over the last decade," says Atlas. "But we don't just send out a check. When we get a request by letter or phone or e-mail from people in need we send someone from the Atlas Foundation to check it out personally. When I can, I go myself. We take a look and decide what the person or family needs."

Last year one of those people was a 15-year old boy who suffers from cerebral palsy. He's confined to a wheelchair. Two years ago the Atlas Foundation built a wheelchair ramp into his house. "This year we got him a motorized adaptive tricycle so he can travel around his neighborhood of New Brighton," says Atlas. "The mobility gives him a new perspective because now he can interact with his neighbors in his blue collar neighborhood."

That, in a word, is life.

Atlas also was contacted by Public School 19 officials who told him about a family displaced by a house fire. "They're a struggling working-class family and didn't have full insurance," says Atlas. "So we gave them a check to get transitional housing, to help that family stay together while they rebuilt their lives."

This is what the Atlas Foundation does: It provides the mortar that holds the bricks of family and community together. And word about it is all over the hilly streets of Staten Island. About six months ago, Teddy bought his morning papers at Classic Pharmacy on Clove Road and encountered a UPS delivery guy named Isaac Rivera who told him he'd entered the New York City Marathon and was asking everyone he delivered to to sponsor his run, the proceeds going to the Atlas Foundation. "Just amazing," Teddy says. "If he was a fighter he'd have the heart of a champion. And UPS is matching whatever he raises. Pure class. Pure heart."

Yes it is, for the dimes and dollars raised by Rivera and the hundreds of thousands raised at the annual dinner go to help people like Evelyn McLeod of the Stapleton projects, a single mother whose whole life centered around her son, Ian Sanchez. Then on June 16, 2006, Sgt. Ian Sanchez was killed by a roadside bomb in Afghanistan. Evelyn withdrew from life. Her universe shrank to her apartment, which became a shrine to her son. The computer which she had used to stay in touch with her boy crashed. Evelyn's sister contacted Teddy Atlas and told her Evelyn needed a computer to reopen a window on the world. Teddy, who is less-computer-savvy than Fred Flintstone, went to visit this gold-star mother with Kathy Zito, executive troubleshooter at the Atlas Foundation. "I sat with Evelyn for hours," Atlas says. "We looked at every photo, at every letter home from the war, at all his combat medals. I told her that the computer we were giving her was from all the people who ever gave a dollar to the Atlas Foundation who were indebted to the service her son gave to his country."

Today, Evelyn McLeod is back on line, communicating with friends and family, back in the fight.

No other charity does this stuff.

Sometimes what the Atlas Foundation does might seem small but still brings big results to a community. Public School 19 had been plagued by vandals who destroyed the schoolyard basketball hoops. The Atlas Foundation replaced them twice. When it happened again, Howland Hook, a containerport company on the Staten Island docks, donated a steel container to store portable b-ball stands that can be locked up at night. "Simple," says Teddy. "But making sure there's a place for the kids of the community to play ball is crucial."

Teddy's list of people the foundation helped this year included a father in Iowa who needed a ramp built for his son's wheelchair, a banister chairlift for a husband in Staten Island who could no longer carry his cancer-stricken wife up the stairs to bed at night, or a 12-year old mentally challenged boy on chemotherapy for lymphoma who lives with his struggling grandmother and mother on Social Security checks. "That kid's bedroom consisted of a mattress on the floor," Teddy says. "We're doing a complete Atlas Foundation makeover with a paint job, carpet, bureaus, bedroom set, TV, books and decorations. We want this kid to experience the comforts of life before it's too late."

Ah, jeez ...

You listen to these stories and you wish there was something you could do to help, especially with the holidays approaching.

Well, there is. Buy a ticket to the big fund-raiser on Nov. 15, or send a check to the Atlas Foundation, and it'll bring the heart of a champion out in you.

Donations to Kathy Zito, executive director, The Atlas Foundation, P.O. Box 140998, Staten Island, N.Y. 10314-0998 or call (718) 980-7037 or visit www.dratlasfoundation.com.