Casino honors community leaders at charity event
Stars Casino on Naglee Road and NFL Alumni – Northern California Chapter, recognized local people who have made a difference in the community during Saturday’s “Stars, Cars and Cigars” event.
On hand to receive certificates were Tracy Police Department School Resources Officer Emily Burnett, Tracy Police Cpl. Alex Contreras and Tracy Mayor Dan Arriola, with Chief Sekou Millington also on hand to represent his department. Contreras was unavailable for Saturday’s event, and Tracy Police Activities League President Lt. Richard Graham accepted the award on his behalf.
Dave August, Executive Director for Marketing for NFL Alumni - Northern California, had a special award for Andy Camain, the maintenance supervisor at Stars Casino. He received the “Don’t Give Up Award.”
In presenting the award August described his own battle against cancer. He received the Don’t Give Up Award at his 2018 induction to the Multi-Ethnic Sports Hall of Fame, with late ESPN announcer Stuart Scott, who served as August’s mentor while going through cancer treatments, presenting the award. August noted that the experience is part of his recent book, Impact, Ignite, which profiles people and their conquests over adversity.
“What it's about is, hopefully I can help one person. If everybody in this world, everybody helps one person, just one person, that may change their life that day because they were going through something, just to say you're going to make it. You’re going to beat cancer.”
Camain was on hand to accept the certificate as the highlight of Saturday’s award presentation.
“This is a special award for me. Thank you so much for your support, for this company,” he said. “We know that there's a lot of people who helped me.”
Stars Casino owners Joseph Melech and Emmanuel Macalino also commented on their role in the community, with Macalino noting that the casino has made it a point to have a community benefit program since operating at its previous locations on 11th Street and on Clover Road.
“We've been trying to do this for the whole community from day one,” Macalino said. “We always thought about community, about our employees, and we chose to reinvest so we get this opportunity to help all of you help other people.”
The event included a charity poker tournament with former NFL players representing NFL Alumni, including Larry Bates (Seattle Seahawks), Henry Lusk (New Orleans Saints), Keith Mcquitter (New York Jets), and Gardner Williams (Los Angeles Raiders).
August said that he expected to raise about $10,000 through the event, and over the course of the year NFL Alumni – Northern California will raise up to $200,000 to support youth football camps, drug abuse awareness, toy drive and hospital visits.
