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Jrue Holiday wins 2024-25 NBA Social Justice Champion award
Bobby Krivitsky: Jrue Holiday is this year’s NBA Social Justice Champion Award winner. Since its inception, the Jrue and Lauren Holiday Social Impact Fund (JLH Fund) has deployed over $5.3 million in grants and provided over 400 hours of coaching and support to nearly 200 businesses nationwide.
Cameron Tabatabaie: Jrue and Lauren Holiday now each have two Olympic gold medals pic.x.com/jey7ftvdei
Malika Andrews: Lauren Holiday with a poignant reminder of the human toll of players being traded: pic.twitter.com/jgVw1OsKQy
Lauren Holiday with a poignant reminder of the human toll of players being traded: pic.twitter.com/jgVw1OsKQy
— Malika Andrews (@malika_andrews) October 5, 2023
Lauren Holiday was looking at Kohler bathroom fixtures for her own home renovation project, when she asked the sales representative a question: “You know what would be really cool? If we partnered and we did women’s shelters.” Kohler responded immediately, Holiday reached out to Sojourner Family Peace Center, the Milwaukee Bucks Foundation pitched in and the combined efforts led to nearly $300,000 to help repair and renovate three local shelters, including one at 619 W. Walnut St., just blocks from Fiserv Forum.
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The Holidays, the Bucks Foundation and Kohler Co. also provided upgraded bathrooms in two other local domestic violence and homeless shelters, the Hope House in Milwaukee and The Women’s Center in Waukesha.
Sometimes a little thing can spark a big idea. And for Jrue and Lauren Holiday, the big ideas always lead to action. While doing some renovation work in their home, Lauren Holiday felt perhaps local women’s shelters could use the same attention to their facilities. So the Holidays partnered up with the Milwaukee Bucks Foundation and the Kohler Co. to donate about $200,000 toward bathroom product upgrades and additional resources to shelter and domestic violence issues in Wisconsin.
The Holidays have been part of Milwaukee for just less than two calendar years (he was acquired via trade with New Orleans on Nov. 24, 2020), but Jrue said the way businesses and people of Wisconsin have answered the call of giving has been overwhelming. “It’s been awesome,” he said. “I think they’re resilient. I think they’re trying to be transformational. Just the way of thinking, (keeping it) the way that it’s probably always been, sometimes isn’t good – so even just being new to ideas and us who aren’t from Wisconsin coming in and giving ideas and suggestions and stuff has been ... I mean they’ve really responded to it.”
“I’m not sure we had an expectation of how big it would be,” Jrue said. “We just knew we wanted to help people. But seeing how it’s progressed and where we are now is really cool to see. So I can’t necessarily say I’ve been surprised by it, but it is really exciting that we get to see other people care about other people and I think for us, me and my wife, we’ve been blessed to have a lot of great opportunities to give back. And not only that, just to see the grantees that we’re giving to also want to give back to the community is cool.”
NBA All-Star and 2021 NBA Champion, Jrue Holiday, and two-time Olympic gold medalist, Lauren Holiday, announce the 2022 recipients of the JLH Social Impact Fund grants to Black-owned small businesses and nonprofits. Grants are awarded to businesses and nonprofits focused on social impact and creating a more equitable future for underserved communities.
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This third round of grant funding is a continuation of Jrue’s pledge during the 2019-2020 season to donate a portion of his salary to the JLH Social Impact Fund, to assist marginalized and underrepresented communities with the funding, mentorship and resources needed to survive.
A group of former New Orleans Pelicans players are making donations to the communities in the areas of Southeast Louisiana affected by Hurricane Ida last month, with Jrue and Lauren Holiday leading the charge. The Holidays, Langston Galloway, Jahlil Okafor and Frank Jackson have committed to sending four truckloads of supplies to the region. The supplies include 200 generators, 200 gas cans and gift cards for gasoline and stores.
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