Friday, January 20, 2012

"Breakfast for Everyone" Muhammad Ali at McDonald's Restaurtant

Global Village Champions Foundation founder Yank Barry and good friend Muhammad Ali, traveled to Jakarta Indonesia on one of their many humanitarian missions to feed hungry people in need.

During their stay Muhammad had a craving for a taste of home.  Early one morning around 7 am, Muhammad wanted to go to McDonald's Restaurant.  It was approximately one block from the Hilton Hotel, but as you can probably guess, he cannot go anywhere without attracting a crowd.  The main concern was that he did not have his body guards with him, but he would not be deterred.

Yank, Muhammad and another friend left the hotel and in no time three people turned into seven, and then seven turned into fifteen as the realization hit that Muhammad Ali was out for a stroll. It was a very busy street and one guy jumped out of his car, leaving it in the street and started following Muhammad with the rest of the crowd. By the time they got to McDonald's it was a mob scene!

Muhammad made his way to the counter and ordered an Egg Mcmuffin and coffee and turned to Yank and said "What do you want?" then turned to their other friend and asked him "What do you want?" They both answered "We will have the same!" At this point Muhammad turns to Yank and says "You got alot of money on you?" Yank says sure and  Muhammad shouts out "Breakfast for Everyone" Muhammad treated everyone in the restaurant  including the staff behind the counter.  By this time the restaurant was jammed with over 100 people.

When the bill came it was over $180.00 and Yank was only carrying $130.00. This took place several years ago so there were no debit machines nor ATM's  and they did not take credit cards like they do today.  Yank had to find a kiosk bank to withdraw $50.00 to pay the bill.  Meanwhile  the mob in the restaurant  was overjoyed to be sharing their breakfast with "The Greatest"

Right place, right time! A memory that these lucky folks will never forget!

Muhammad Ali, Yank Barry at McDonald's, Jakarta Indonesia

There is more to the story.   The following afternoon Muhammad wants to go for a walk and again no security with them. Yank and Muhammad and another friend were walking behind the hotel and they had lagged behind Yank  All of a sudden Yank is surrounded by 4 or 5 big guys who came out of nowhere and said to Yank "hey where are you going boy?" Yank can see Muhammad and his friend and Muhammad can see what is happening to Yank.  The would be robbers, were focusing on Yank and didn't see Muhammad Ali. One of them says to Yank, " give us all of your money, give us your watch" Yank calls out ....MUHAMMAD...and Muhammad pretends he doesn't hear him. Nothing happens so  Yank reaches into his pocket because these guys were going to beat him up. As Yank pulled his money out  Muhammad and their friend walk over one of the robbers looks up and goes "Muhammad Ali" Muhammad looks back at the thug and says "this is my friend". Needless to say, Yank kept his wallet and watch!

Yank and Ali have been close friends for decades and have provided over 550 million meals to feed the hungry.  Ali's celebrity has paved the way for Global Village Champions Foundation  to deliver food even in war torn areas.  As you can imagine, not a shot was fired while Yank and Muhammad delivered badly needed food and medical supplies. Where ever they were asked to go to help, especially when children were concerned they went.  
Yank Barry and Muhammad Ali on a private jet delivering food to hungry kids

To learn more about their humanitarian work and their journey it is chronicled on http://www.globalvillagechampions.org.

"Join The Greatest Fight - The Fight Against Hunger"

Jackie Bigford
Social Media Director
Global Village Champions Foundation

Tuesday, January 17, 2012

Happy 70th Birthday Muhammad Ali

Muhammad Ali was not only the Greatest Boxer of all time and  the most recognized man on the planet, he is also a great humanitarian.  He traveled the globe for decades as the Official Ambassador to our non-profit foundation "Global Village Champions Foundation". 

Respect, Confidence, Conviction, Dedication, Giving, and Spirituality are Muhammad Ali's core values. These six tenets have provided the foundation for a life that has touched millions of people around the World and has earned Ali the title "The Greatest".

 Ali's legacy is much more than just three Heavyweight Championship Belts and an Olympic Gold Medal. As a Global Village Champion Muhammad Ali, along with his close friend Yank Barry, has been instrumental in providing over 555,000,000 meals to the hungry over the past 20 years.  They traveled to areas of the world that were not only some of the poorest, but some of the most dangerous.  Where Mohammad went, so to did the press.  This allowed him to enter into regions that were denied to many and allowed us to deliver the food, water and medical supplies directly to the people in need.

Muhammad Ali, Sister Beltran, Yank Barry - Cote d'Ivoire

"I was told there was a problem here. I'm here to do all I can to help. People are hungry. People need help, and if I can do anything to help then I'm ready. These are my brothers and sisters and we should treat each other like brother and sister." Press Release - Muhammad-Ali-Rceives-Lifetime-Achievement-award-at-his-70th-birthday-party.html

Ali traveled to many inhospitable regions of the World as a Global Village Champion and personally accompanied the shipments of food, medical supplies, clothing, school supplies and hope. This demonstration of selfless humanitarian leadership is a key reason that The Leaders Magazine and the American Leadership Development Association chose to bestow their Lifetime Achievement Award upon Muhammad Ali during the 2011 GLA Awards in Kuala Lumpur this past July. Muhammad was not able to attend the awards ceremony. Lonnie Ali, Muhammad's wife, asked his friend and fellow award recipient Yank Barry to accept the award on his behalf. Mr. Barry presented the award to Ali in the presence of 350 invited guests who had gathered at the Ali Center in Louisville Kentucky to celebrate Muhammad Ali's 70th birthday.




Ali Center Lifetime Member & longtime friend Yank Barry presented Muhammad Ali with the Lifetime Achievement Award given by The Leaders Magazine & The American Leadership Development Association during Ali's 70th Birthday Gala in Louisville, KY






 Mr. Barry received the Philanthropist of the Year award at the same 2011 GLA ceremony on July 22. This was the sixth time in twenty years that Barry and Ali have received awards together. Their humanitarian work has earned them joint recognition in Atlanta GA, Liberia, Indonesia, Morocco, Mexico and Malaysia and their journey is chronicled on http://www.globalvillagechampions.org.

 "He has lived a life of everything and anything. He has been liked and disliked and is now mostly beloved. He is an enigma and a treasure." bill.dwyre@latimes.com

Happy 70th Birthday from the entire team at Global Village Champions Foundation
Join Muhammad in  "The Greatest Fight - The Fight Against Hunger"

Jackie Bigford
Social Media Director
Global Village Champions Foundation

Monday, January 16, 2012

The Shorty Awards - The Academy Awards of Twitter

Hollywood has the Oscars. Broadway has the Tonys. Now Twitter has the... Shorty Awards
The New York Times

What do Conan O'Brien, Cory Booker, Sesame Street's Grover, Suze Orman, Ted Leo, Neil Patrick Harris and NASA have in common? Besides being awesome, they're all Shorty Award winners.

The Shorty Awards honor the best of social media, recognizing the people and organizations producing real-time short form content on across Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, YouTube, Foursquare, and the rest of the social Web. 

Every year, millions of people visit the Shorty Awards site to tweet nominations for their favorite social media content creators. All those tweets culminate in a highly anticipated awards ceremony that celebrates the winners in dozens of featured categories, as well as thousands of crowd-sourced community ones. For the second time, the Shorty Awards will also honor the industry's best agencies, brands, and social media professionals.
 Global Village Champions Foundation and Yank Barry are honoured to be nominated in the #charity category! It is so simple to vote and show your support. Our team is a dedicated group of volunteers who work to see an end to global hunger.  In the past 18+ years we have fed over 550 millions meals to hungry people around the globe.  We do not discriminate - hunger is hunger no matter where you live or the colour of ones skin!

A Special Shout-out to all of the amazing Twitter peeps who have honoured us with your support!

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Just click the link below, add your comments after the because (this is important, as the nomination will not count if you do not add your own original comment) then tweet it out.

If for any reason you are not comfortable signing into the site using your twitter account you can simply construct a tweet and tweet it into your stream: Make sure to add: The Shorty Awards @gogvm and #charity and give a reason!  To make it easier for me to follow all of the nominations please try to fit in the hashtag #ADayWithoutHunger 


Nominate Global Village  for a social media award in the Shorty Awards!Nominate Global Village for a social media award in the Shorty Awards


Join The Greatest Fight, The Fight Against Hunger
Jackie Bigford
Social Media Director