Celebrity sightings and signings
Famed car designer Chip Foose (left) and retired WCW and WWE wrestler Bill Goldberg joined up to sign autographs during last weekend’s Foose Braselton Bash at YearOne. The event raised $106,000 to aid research and a new clinical drug for Progeria, a disease that causes accelerated aging and premature death in children. Photo by Steven Beardsley
Celebrities come out for poker, cars and a good cause
BY STEVEN BEARDSLEY
The last time retired WWE wrestler Bill Goldberg visited Georgia, he was promoting his new movie, a remake of the 1974 prison football pic ‘The Longest Yard,’ with Burt Reynolds.
Over the past weekend, the six-foot-four, 285-pound Goldberg found another reason to return to his home state. He was one of a handful of celebrities — and one of many car enthusiasts — gathered for YearOne’s Foose Braselton Bash, a two-day event aimed at funding research on Progeria, a disease that causes accelerated aging and premature death in afflicted children.
“If people come because I’m here, then that’s a good thing,” Goldberg said during Friday evening’s celebrity poker night, the private fund-raiser that preceded Saturday’s car show.
Goldberg joined weekend headliner Chip Foose as well as blues rocker Kenny Wayne Shepherd to draw a crowd of 72 players for the poker night, which was held at the private home of a local car aficionado.
For a $1,000 donation, players received a handful of chips, a seat at a table, and permission to bring a guest. Those with the highest chip counts at evening’s end won sponsor-donated prizes like a crate engine, a disc brakes kit or a set of tires. Each player also received a guitar autographed by the celebrities in attendance, and Shepherd strummed on two other guitars that YearOne later auctioned off for a total of $6,000. All proceeds from the night benefited the Progeria Research Foundation.
For Foose, the famed hot rod designer who lends his name and time to the annual fund-raiser, the cause is a personal one. Foose’s sister, Amy, died of Progeria in 1999, and Foose currently serves as vice chairman of the California chapter of the Progeria Research Foundation.
The designer teamed with YearOne in 2006 for the first Foose Braselton Bash, which raised over $90,000; this year, the weekend netted $106,000.
Such success is due to the popularity of Foose, say friends and business partners who know him best.
Looking over the nine poker tables, each crowded with anywhere from six to 10 players, car parts maker Scott Whitaker noted Friday night that although Foose, who was seated at one of the more crowded tables, has found incredible success in his career — as an independent designer, as a TV host, and most recently as a consultant for Ford — he has remained generous to those in need.
“He’s driven, he’s just really driven,” said Whitaker, who owns a company that makes a heat and sound buffer endorsed by Foose. “He doesn’t have a lot of ego.”
Audrey Gordon, president of the Progeria Research Foundation, is quick to agree. “Chip is such an amazingly generous person,” she remarked Friday night.
Gordon’s foundation is currently funding the first-ever clinical drug trial for Progeria, a disease that claims most patients by the age of 13, due to atherosclerosis, a condition typically found in older individuals.
“Doing research on Progeria could help millions of kids,” Gordon noted.
“It’s kind of nice to be the charity of the weekend.”
Fans of Goldberg and Foose thought it was kind of nice to have the two on hand at Saturday’s Braselton Bash car show. In a shady tent in the YearOne parking lot, fans brought posters, T-shirts and car parts to be signed by the two celebrities.
Elsewhere on the lot, a special corral marked the 100 hot rods and cruisers that would be judged by none other than Foose, himself; each entry cost $100, and each owner was able to spend a little time with the famous designer. Entries for the general show cost $30, $20 more than the average Bash show.
And if that weren’t enough, YearOne auctioned off a Sunday-night dinner with Chip Foose to the two highest bidders.
Friday afternoon, before the poker night was under way, YearOne marketing director Pat Staton said the company was “enthusiastic enough to want to beat [2006]” in terms of money raised.
How did he feel about besting that amount by $16,000?
“It was a real good weekend.”
