Bay Area Companies Support the Cingular Celebrity Winterfest in Lake Tahoe March 9 - 11 to Benefit Special Olympics

Business Wire, March 12, 2007

LAKE TAHOE, Calif. -- On March 9 through 11 some of the United States' most diverse celebrities and businesses competed on Lake Tahoe's picturesque ski slopes at The Cingular Celebrity Winterfest, to raise money for Special Olympics. This annual event is sponsored by Cingular, now the new AT&T, at Harvey's Lake Tahoe and Heavenly Ski Resort and raised over $558,000 to support Special Olympics athletes.

The two-day event included a Welcome Reception, Corporate Ski Challenge and an Awards Dinner at Harvey's Lake Tahoe Resort with a Silent and Live Auction. The Cingular Celebrity Winterfest brings together 17 Bay Area companies whose corporate teams have each donated $13,000 in order to participate in the weekend event.

The 2007 Cingular Celebrity Winterfest includes participants from Co-Sponsors such as Harvey's and Heavenly to event sponsors such as Crestpoint Solutions, Continental Airlines, Ericsson, Motorola, LG, and Pacific Color Graphics. Event supporters include Global Studio, Safeway, Heavenly Sports and Sunrise Sports. Media Sponsors include San Francisco Business Times, Contra Costa Times and the East Bay Business Times. Participating celebrities include Scott Grimes (ER), Parminder Nagra, (ER), Zac Levi (Big Momma's House), Joel David Moore (Dodgeball), Mike Buie (Mystery Alaska), Kevin Durand (Smoking Aces), Andy Lauer (War of the Worlds), Thyme Lewis (Days of our Lives), Scott Michael Campbell (Brokeback Mountain), Justin Melvey (Days of our Lives), Amy Pietz (Rodney), Emmanuelle Vaugier (CSI NY), Juliette Goodrich (KPIX News), Dawn Lewis (National Security), John Sasaki (KTVU), Andy Comeau (Huff), Kevin Weisman (Alias), Debbie Meyer (Olympic Gold Medalist), Stephanie Weir (Mad TV), Ed Marinaro (Hill Street Blues), Vanessa Lengies (Stick It), Tony "The Tiger" Lopez (3X World Boxing Champion), John Vogel (Producer), Dawn Olivieri (Model), Ben Davidson (Oakland Raider Legend), and Tim Abell (Breathe).

The Corporate Ski Challenge at Heavenly Ski Resort (to be held on Saturday, March 10) paired an eight member corporate team, with a Special Olympics Alpine Ski Athlete, and a celebrity skier (making a total of 10 participants on each team) who competed against one another for a day that was extraordinary. Results from the event were announced at the Awards Dinner with categories that include Best-Dressed Team, Fastest Skier, Best Spill, and of course the number one, two and three winning teams from the competition. This year's winning team was the Special Olympics Northern California Board of Directors Team, with second place going to Ericsson and third place to the California Police Youth Charities team.

All proceeds from the weekend benefit Special Olympics Northern California and Nevada and will support the Winter Games at Kirkwood Ski Resort March 12-15. The mission of Special Olympics is to provide FREE year-round sports training and competition in a variety of Olympic style sports for individuals eight years of age (and older) with developmental disabilities, giving them continuing opportunities to increase physical fitness, demonstrate courage, experience joy and participate in the sharing of gifts, skill and friendship with their families, other athletes and the community. In Northern California and Nevada, 15,830 athletes currently compete in 18 Olympic style sports.

www.celebritywinterfest.com