Wednesday, April 28, 2010

NEWS ALERT - HOPE Foundation WNBA Season Calendar



News Alert * News Alert * News Alert


WNBA World Champion Temeka Johnson & HOPE Foundation Will Unveil New Commemorative WNBA Calendar for Charity


WHO: WNBA World Champion Phoenix Mercury PG Temeka Johnson, HOPE Foundation

WHAT: 1st annual Temeka Johnson Weekend to focus on giving back, education, and community involvement throughout the New Orleans and Baton Rouge area; Will also include WNBA championship festivities!

WHEN: Saturday, May 15th – Available Online on April 30th!!!

WHERE: Global

TIME: N/A

MORE: To highlight a concentrated effort on bringing fans closer to the WNBA Champion, the WNBA and the endeavors of the foundation, H.O.P.E. created a commemorative calendar specifically for the WNBA season. After winning the championship and establishing her off-the-court brand, Ms. Johnson continues to find ways to interact with the communities across the world. The calendar will help fundraising efforts for the foundation, as all proceeds benefit the foundation. With the goal of raising $25,000 by December 2010 for the Jewel Johnson Scholarship Fund, the Mercurial Champion is starting the season off with her “Face of HOPE” calendar. The calendar is a mixture of on the court (WNBA and overseas) and off the court imagery related to Temeka. The 11x17 full color calendars are available for $20, and the first 50 will be autographed by Ms. Johnson.

ABOUT: Heaven Opens People’s Eyes (H.O.P.E.) was launched during the summer of 2008. The foundation was established by WNBA player, Temeka Johnson, to provide H.O.P.E. to people across the world. HOPE’s goal is to inspire youth, families and communities to reach their own goals and objectives and lead a more emotionally healthy lifestyle. www.MeeksHOPE.org for more information!


CONTACT:
Fuzion Athlete Management
773-359-3417 (office)
Quency@FuzionAM.com
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Wednesday, April 21, 2010

Visitors from Home!!!


Hello everyone!! There has been so much stuff going on, I am not even sure where to begin!!! I will start with whats been going on over here.

About to a week and a half ago I had my Marketing/Business Manager (Quency and FAM) over here with me, and it was awesome to see them. We had a ton of fun, Quency fried some chicken and stuff for us (which, by the way everyone, was really good), we played cards, and also Taboo. Quency and I even got in the gym and had a shootout. It was good to see him on the court. Naw, he can play yall. I know he will give me a little heat about this but its all fun. I did beat him pretty bad, though. I know he will want his revenge, so we will be playing again probably during training camp. I think he knows that he'll have to bring his A game!! From there we went on to Paris and enjoyed that scenery. The FAM enjoyed themselves so all in all I was happy.

After saying good bye to them it was time to channel my attention on finishing the regular season. We were facing the number one team in France, and it has been a long time since our club has beaten them. So on the road we go; 8 hours away. Although it was a long ride, it didnt matter because we knew we needed to win this game in order to obtain 4th place. So there was some extra motivation, so to say. We accomplished our goal and won the game, not only did we win the game but we won by 17 on the opposing team's floor. It was a total team effort. Lenae Williams, my teammate here and possibly in Phoenix, dropped 30 pts, and I followed her with 17. The coach and everyone in the club was super happy.

Now there are a couple of days before we played again, but this time we are playing the French Cup game, and yes we have to play Tarbes again, that same number one team, but this time at a neutral site. During these couple of days we were lodging at what we the players have just summed it up as STRAIGHT SUMMER CAMP. The set up was really nice they had a gymnasium, weight room, training place for rowing, pool etc., but there was nothing in the town, and there was not 1 store close to where we were. Now the exciting stuff starts to happen.

It close to dinner and we are all getting ready. Everyone was speaking of how hungry they were and everything. We sit down and we start off with a salad, then for the entree the lady brings out a couple of bowls of mashed potatoes with fish smashed into it. ( HUH ) We were like "what is this?". Then we asked where was the meat and she brought out 6 piece of cold cut ham and it was like 11 of us. For dessert there was yogurt.

I didnt think that anything else could have surprised me that day. As soon as we got up to go back to our rooms, they were like you have to clean off the table and bring the dishes to the back! We were like "what kind of hotel is this?". LOL from that point on we knew we were in summer camp. All the meals were prepared already and there was no changing them. The next day, I wont bore you too much with all the details, just know that we were fed fish pies (I think it is supposed to be similar to pot pies) and they had cheese in it. I think I literally lost 5 pounds in those 2 1/2 days.

Now on to the french cup. This is the Semi Finals and the winner advances to the championship game that is played in Paris in front of 15000 fans. It is a huge event and all of us were excited about it, but the french players were beyond excited and that is to be expected. We started the game out really well, and by half time we were only down by 5. This is the same Tarbes team that we had just beaten, but they were just as hungry to get to Paris as our team and it showed. They played more physical and more together than before and they were not backing down. They came out throwing punches and instead of throwing them back we surrendered and ended up losing. Not just losing by 5 or 6 pts but by 20. I have to admit they played well and they do have a pretty good team.

Now for the start of the playoffs, oh i didnt tell you all, we play Tarbes again. The first place team has to play the 4th place team. Can you say that we know each other very well? I think I can but you know for me its exciting I love a challenge and this team definitely brings that.

So, I know everyone is paying attention to the volcanic ash story. Well, all of us WNBA players are DEFINITELY paying CLOSE attention! We want to get home! We want to be home!!! But I'm seeing that Air France is leading the way, and has started to fly people out. I'm hoping that there will be no problems when I leave at the end of the month. I can't wait to get back to Baton Rouge and New Orleans to do some HOPE Foundation stuff (I have a Teacher Appreciation lunch on May 4th) and then back to Phoenix to defend the championship! More on that later!!!

OK everyone thank you for taking the read this lengthy blog, I will keep you posted on what happens throughout this upcoming series.

Meek