TallySaint

Saints RB Bush reaches out to Slidell residents



SLIDELL, La. (June 29, 2006) -- New Orleans Saints rookie running back Reggie Bush was on hand when officials from the General Motors plant in Shreveport announced that GM has extended its loan of 12 Hummer H3s to Louisiana state agencies for an additional year.

After hurricanes Katrina and Rita devastated the region last year, GM and Hummer loaned the vehicles -- which were made in Shreveport -- to the state to aid in its relief efforts.

"I'm honored to have the opportunity to lend my personal support to helping New Orleans and its neighboring communities get back on track," said Bush, who signed an endorsement deal with Hummer before he was drafted. Bush also announced he would donate a number of autographed footballs to the Slidell Police Department that will be auctioned to raise money for a group of area charities.

Slidell is located about 30 miles northeast of New Orleans across Lake Pontchartrain.

"Hummer donated two of these vehicles to Slidell," Slidell Police Department spokesman Capt. Rob Callahan told the New Orleans Times-Picayune. "We've used them for the last year, and we will continue to use them. We're grateful to General Motors for allowing us to have them. We're really appreciative to Reggie Bush. For him to come to the north shore to donate his time and these items to us means a lot."

In May, Bush and adidas donated $50,000 to Holy Rosary Academy and High School in Metairie shortly after school officials announced the school, which is dedicated to students with special learning needs, was in danger of closing due to a lack of funding.

Two weeks ago, Bush and adidas donated $86,000 to renovate Tad Gormley Stadium, a city facility where several area high schools have played football games for decades. The flood waters in the stadium after Katrina were 4½ feet high. The playing surface will be named Reggie Bush Field.



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8)

My Guardian Angel wears a hard hat.

Crusader

One word: Class!

BJSim

With every one of these stories that comes out, the Jersey Donation, the High School Donation, the Football Field Donation, Reggie is positioning himself to be the "good guy" come bargaining time. He's going to be a media/local darling and Benson is just going to seem cheap and petty (not a hard thing for Benson) for not giving this guy every dime he's asking for.

I'm not saying Reggie's only doing this for the positive news coverage, but we'll know more a year from now if he's still helping out like this. God I hope he's going to be (and stay) a bright spot on the roster, helping rebuild the city and showing other pro athletes what they should really be doing with thier "hard earned" money. These numbers he's donating are ALOT for the people recieving them but almost nothing for him. If Reggie gets 20mil garanteed then it's less than 1%, but it's the fact that he's helping at all when he doesn't have to.

If only these stories got more than minor hits on sports news sites it'd help even more. Hello national media, there's still alot of work to be done done in the gulf region.

CHACHING

That's my boy!
Bush=Class/Winning.