Getty Sybrina Fulton and Tracy Martin together at an event featuring their book, "Rest in Power"
The Super Bowl may be be the main show in Miami, Florida, but it surely ain’t the only show in town!
The Giving Gracefully Awards will be celebrating movers and shakers in the industry and on January 28 at Nobu Hotel Miami Beach, it will honor Trayvon Martin‘s mom, Sybrina Fulton as well as Dj Irie, Mike and Rachel McKenzie, Jon Moody, Nat Moore, Tracy Wilson Mourning and LaChina Robinson.
Founded in 2009 by sports and entertainment attorney, Kimberly Haynes and her OMBI Group, LLC, the Giving Gracefully Awards celebrates excellence from athletes and entertainers. The annual awards show which takes place in the respective Super Bowl city, highlights philanthropic endeavors.
Ahead of the ceremony, I checked in with Kimberly Haynes and discussed the honorees and more.
Check out my Q&A below:
Brandon ‘Scoop B’ Robinson: The Giving Gracefully Awards is honoring game changing, philanthropic athletes and entertainers. Why Miami? Why this year?
Kimberly K. Haynes: Well Miami because it’s the host city for the Super Bowl, and we have done the Super Bowl since the Super Bowl was in New Orleans six or seven years ago and in order for us to provide them with a good platform for people who are amongst their demographic so, most of this made sense for us. So Miami because it’s the Super Bowl and next week because it’s the Super Bowl [laughs]
Brandon ‘Scoop B’ Robinson: Sybrina Fulton. She is receiving the Impact Award. Everybody knows that is the mother of Trayvon Martin. What made you pick her as the Impact Award recipient?
Kimberly K. Haynes: It was a natural fit. It was kind of like a no-brainer. This our second year that we have produced the Impact Award. We look at local organizations that are doing extraordinarily things in their local communities. And when I say local mean local to the whole city being in Miami, with her being from Miami Gardens, it just made sense for us to support her and show her how much we appreciate her and her journey since the death of her son Trayvon Martin.
Brandon ‘Scoop B’ Robinson: Tracy Wilson Mourning the ex-wife of Alonzo Mourning will also be honored.
Kimberly K. Haynes: She is going to be receiving the Giving Gracefully Award. So we have five honorees who will be receiving the Giving Gracefully award which is our standard staple award and then we have the two other individuals Sabrina Fulton receiving the Impact award and Nat Moore former, NFL great receiving the Legends award. So Tracy Wilson Mourning will be receiving one of our Giving Gracefully honors.
Brandon ‘Scoop B’ Robinson: What does Giving Gracefully mean to you?
Kimberly K. Haynes: Giving Gracefully means to me it embodies the passion, the grace, the true interest in the betterment of society that most people still embody, it’s a way for them to exude their extraordinary philanthropic interests and within the passion and grace that they can. Most of these individuals give unflinchingly, they give consistently without meeting the accolades, or the recognition…so in my opinion Giving Gracefully embodies just that; that these individuals are giving their time talents and treasures in a way they don’t have anything to benefit from or they want to benefit from
Brandon ‘Scoop B’ Robinson: The Awards Show, the dinner is included, I’m looking at the flyer and it says Miami sheik attire is preferred. What is your background in philanthropic work? You’re a lawyer, what is your entry point in the entertainment sector?
Kimberly K. Haynes: So I come from a family philanthropists and educators. Both sets of my grandparents and parents were heavily involved in their local communities, so the essence of award is for me to capture those philanthropists and I forgot the other part of your question…
Brandon ‘Scoop B’ Robinson: Your background in the entertainment-space?
Kimberly K. Haynes: Yes. I have been practicing for the last 20 years. I got my start working just with one of my clients who happens to play for the 49ers, and I wanted to go into Sports Law specifically sports agency work but I didn’t know how I was going to be received as an African American female so I decided to go the road less travelled and work with athletes with their philanthropy. You know it’s compassion and passion, non-threatening to a lot of sports professionals, and so I married the love of community service that I had received as a young tod, following after my grandfather, my mother and father with all their community service work, and sports and entertainment into one company in the OMBI Group
Brandon ‘Scoop B’ Robinson: What other initiatives do you have besides the Giving Gracefully Awards?
Kimberly K. Haynes: We also host a NFL Draft luncheon. We’re all about educating through OMBI Group, so we host a luncheon during the NFL Draft every year. We invite the parents of the perspective draft prospects to a luncheon, very informal setting. Donavan McNabb’s parents Wilma Char McNabb and Sam McNabb are our host and hostess. Then we have other parents of professional athletes both current and former who kind of gives them some love. We’ve had a number of number #1 first round draft picks’ parents in the room, I mean they typically come back because what they’re doing is a full circle event where the rookie parents are the ones that are getting loved and then they want to come back to show love to the parents coming up so it’s definitely been a full circle passion project of mine and we host it every year like I said during the NFL Draft. Now we will be looking at doing something very similar with the NBA Draft, WNBA Draft, but the NFL is where my office is, most of my clients play so we decided to look at the NFL as a means for us to start educating parents about what they need to know to help them help their sons transition from college to the pros.