Gasol Foundation Joins Children’s Hospital Los Angeles’ Walk & Play LA in Santa Monica

Gasol Foundation is a proud partner in Children’s Hospital Los Angeles’ Walk & Play LA held on Saturday May 20th. The 7th annual event is a family-friendly community event on the Santa Monica Pier that celebrates and supports the health of children. Walk & Play LA brings together the sports and wellness community for a 3K fun walk, family festival for all ages, and sports clinics hosted by professional athletes, including adaptive sports activities. Co-hosted by boxing legend Sugar Ray Leonard and host of the Ellen K Morning Show on KOST 103.5, Ellen K, Walk & Play LA was complete with live music, special guests, food, family fun under the sun and an exciting All-Star line-up in the Play Zone!

Children and parents who visited our Gasol Foundation booth enjoyed healthy games, prizes, and raffle collectibles. Thank you CHLA for the incredible opportunity to participate in such a fantastic event.

There’s still time to give to Children’s Hospital Los Angeles! Help raise critical funds in support of Children’s Hospital Los Angeles and its mission to create hope and build healthier futures.

It was another great weekend at the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books for Gasol Foundation USA! As expected, the nation’s largest literary event had a big turnout on both Saturday, April 22nd – Sunday, April 23rd. We were thrilled to participate at the Festival of Books for the second consecutive year and have the opportunity to engage with the community. It was a (healthy) party in booth #553 as both kids and many adults enjoyed doing exercises as we promoted healthy habits. We provided healthy games, prizes and raffle collectibles on the University of Southern California campus where the festival took place.

Thank you to AltaMed pediatrician and Gasol Foundation USA Advisory Board member, Dr. Iian Shapiro, for visiting our booth! And congratulations to our raffle winners, Aditya and Benjamin, who each won an autographed item from our President, Pau Gasol!

Overall, kids of ages and families enjoyed these free family-friendly days on the main USC campus. Thank you Los Angeles Times and USC for hosting such a fantastic event. We look forward to participating next year and impacting even more families through heathy habits! 

Gasol Foundation USA is celebrating the Los Angeles Lakers’ retirement of number 16 to honor Lakers legend and Gasol Foundation USA Co-Founder, Pau Gasol, on March 7, 2023. As part of the celebration, Gasol Foundation USA is hosting a drawing for two game tickets and a meet-and-greet with Pau Gasol. One lucky winner will receive two tickets to Laker game/ceremony

and a meet-and-greet with Laker great Pau Gasol.

The retirement of Pau Gasol’s jersey by the Los Angeles Lakers will take place as the Lakers face the Memphis Grizzlies (Gasol’s first NBA team) at Crypto.com Arena.

The prize drawing for the two game tickets and meet-and-greet with Pau has begun, with entries at $25 each (multiple entries are allowed). The deadline to enter is noon PST on March 1, 2023, and the winner will be drawn at 4pm PST on March 1st. 

Pau played for the Lakers during seven seasons with three All Star selections–and helped lead Los Angeles to back-to-back championships. He is “humbled and excited” about this great recognition by such a great franchise. He is delighted to share this moment with his family and friends, and supporters of the Gasol Foundation. 

Gasol Foundation USA’s Galactic Sports winter programming, in collaboration with Los Angeles County Parks and Recreation, will begin in January 2023 at the following locations: El Cariso Community Regional Park (Sylmar, CA), Del Aire Park (Hawthorne, CA), Pamela Park (Duarte, CA), Amelia Mayberry Park (Whittier, CA), Ruben F Salazar Park (East Los Angeles, CA), and Lennox Park (Lennox, CA). Register today – and we’ll see you there! 

Galactic Sports is a community-based program promoting sports and healthy habits. The goal of the program is to reduce risk of childhood obesity among children by engaging them in sports and promoting these healthy habits: diet, physical activity, sleep, and emotional well-being. Galactic Sports is for children ages 6-13. The activities are designed for beginners to gain confidence in the sport.

Gasol Foundation USA presented at the 2022 American Public Health Association Annual Meeting & Expo in Boston. Our presentation poster was based on the pilot of the ENERGY program and its impact on children’s physical activity and health in both the United States and Spain. We are proud to be invited to present at the APHA conference in order to share our childhood obesity work, engage with public health experts, and collaborate with other advocates. We look forward to expanding our research for the benefit of children’s health!

On Thursday, September 15th, Gasol Foundation celebrated our new partnership with the County of Los Angeles Department of Parks and Recreation with a kick-off event held at Ruben F. Salazar Park. We are officially up and running for the Fall and currently providing our Galactic Sports programming at five Los Angeles County Regional parks (Ruben F. Salazar Park in East Los Angeles, El Cariso Community Regional Park in Sylmar, Pamela Park in Duarte, Sorensen Park in Whittier, and Lennox Park in Lennox) and the Los Angels Boys and Girls Club in Lincoln Heights.

We would like to thank Supervisor Hilda Solis and Director of the County of Los Angeles Department of Parks and Recreation, Norma Garcia, for recognizing our work to reduce the risk of childhood obesity through sports and healthy habits. 

The nation’s largest literary and cultural festival returned to the University of Southern California on Saturday, April 23rd and Sunday, April 24th, 2022, with indoor and outdoor events, hundreds of exhibitor booths, author signings, performances, and free activities.

Our organization was one of many exhibitor booths participating at the festival. And although here at Gasol Foundation we focus on all four healthy planets in our Healthy Galaxy- the main theme of our Festival of Books activation was physical activity. Because our booth was in the Children’s Zone at the festival, our goal was to create an interactive experience filled with activities for kids to have fun and learn.

Every child who visited our booth received a Gasol Foundation Coloring Book. Both children and adults all got the chance to spin our physical activity wheel and perform a specific low-intensity exercise or movement. We even had a life size cut out of Pau for families to take pictures with. And if that wasn’t enough, we included a raffle where individuals could enter for a chance to win an autographed basketball from Pau!

As you can see our booth was action -packed and filled with heathy activities! Most importantly, children and

their families had an absolute blast! Our first time participating at the Festival of Books was a success! We had an incredible time meeting so many new faces, sharing our #ZeroChildhoodObesity efforts, and empowering thousands of children and families through healthy habits! Thank you Los Angeles Times for the opportunity to be a part of such an amazing event. It was truly an unforgettable weekend.

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