{"id":3860,"date":"2010-04-14T15:01:22","date_gmt":"2010-04-14T19:01:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/figureskatersonline.com\/news\/?p=3860"},"modified":"2017-09-04T09:24:08","modified_gmt":"2017-09-04T13:24:08","slug":"johnny-weir-to-appear-at-gmhc-aidswalk-in-new-york","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/figureskatersonline.com\/news\/2010\/04\/14\/johnny-weir-to-appear-at-gmhc-aidswalk-in-new-york\/","title":{"rendered":"Johnny Weir to host AidsWalk benefit"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>Release courtesy of Fireworks Sports Marketing<\/em><\/p>\n<p>NEW YORK, NY &#8211; &#8211; While his contemporaries may be dancing with stars, doing \u201cfamily\u201d ice shows or just trying to catch their breath after the Vancouver Winter Olympics, Johnny Weir is using his heightened celebrity status to get behind a diversified list of charities and causes. \u201cIt\u2019s just what I was taught by my parents,\u201d Weir says. \u201cWhen you\u2019re in a position to help people, you should do it,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n<p>It was announced today that Weir would host <em>88 for AIDS<\/em>, a May 6<sup>th<\/sup> fundraiser to support AidsWalk New York and Team 119, the mental health clinic at GMHC. The classical piano concert and cocktail reception will be held in a spectacular Tribeca penthouse loft and will feature buff bartenders from modelbartenders.com pouring Ultimat Vodka cocktails. Tickets to the event are available at www.88forAIDS.com<\/p>\n<p>Weir recently returned from Chicago where he starred in <em>Cuties\u2019<\/em> <em>Ice Dreams<\/em> with the city\u2019s best 18 and under skaters, encouraging them to follow their dreams whatever they might be. This was followed by <em>Figure Skating in Harlem<\/em>, a New York City charitable event to support educational and athletic programs in Harlem where hundreds of underserved kids are privately tutored and taught to ice skate.<\/p>\n<p>The skater has also committed to <em>Ice Theatre of New York<\/em>, a non-profit art theatre group that invited him to skate on April 29<sup>th<\/sup> because of his outstanding gift of artistry to the skating community and his ability to be daring. Mr. Weir has lent his support to <em>nPLAY<\/em>, a coalition of elite athletes from eight different sports, led by Boston Celtics forward Paul Pierce, whose goal is to raise funds to fight children\u2019s obesity. On April 18<sup>th<\/sup> in Los Angeles, Weir will be honored by <em>Equality California <\/em>at a private reception recognizing his important message to young people about being who they are and feeling the freedom to express themselves.<\/p>\n<p>Since the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, the \u201coutspoken and outrageous\u201d Weir has appeared on a plethora of TV talk shows from \u201cThe Tonight Show with Jay Leno\u201d to \u201cLIVE! With Regis &amp; Kelly,\u201d not to mention starring in his own reality series, \u201cBe Good Johnny Weir,\u201d on the Sundance channel. He is a three time national champion, two time Olympian and is currently in talks with potential sponsors to help produce his own ice spectacular. When asked to comment on his interest and dedication to charitable causes, Weir took a line from his realty show, \u201cWhen I\u2019m good, I\u2019m <em>very<\/em> good\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>While his contemporaries may be dancing with stars, doing \u201cfamily\u201d ice shows or just trying to catch their breath after the Vancouver Winter Olympics, Johnny Weir is using his heightened celebrity status to get behind a diversified list of charities and causes. \u201cIt\u2019s just what I was taught by my parents,\u201d Weir says. \u201cWhen you\u2019re in a position to help people, you should do it,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[289],"tags":[20],"class_list":["post-3860","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-johnny-weir"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/figureskatersonline.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3860","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/figureskatersonline.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/figureskatersonline.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/figureskatersonline.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/figureskatersonline.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3860"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/figureskatersonline.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3860\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3862,"href":"https:\/\/figureskatersonline.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3860\/revisions\/3862"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/figureskatersonline.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3860"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/figureskatersonline.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3860"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/figureskatersonline.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3860"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}