Tanners set sights on bigger:
As fundraising auction nears, foundation shifts focus to disabled kids

By BOB GILLESPIE
Senior Writer
TheState.com
January 24, 2007

When Karen and Ray Tanner first became adoptive parents, they saw their two daughters — Grace, 3, and Maggie, 15 months — as tiny miracles. But being a parent means recognizing the potential for despair as well as joy.

Now, Karen Tanner can’t look at their three healthy youngsters (a son, Luke, was born 10 months ago to the USC baseball coach and his wife) without thinking how one or more might have come into the world with physical or mental handicaps.

“I adopted two kids with no medical history,” she said. “You can’t predict those things.

“When I see (handicapped children), I never think: ‘Why them?’ Rather, I think, ‘Why didn’t that happen in my family?’”

Thus, while last year’s first fundraiser for the Ray Tanner Foundation was to “provide support for adoptive families,” Sunday’s 6 p.m. dinner and auction at Seawell’s on Rosewood Drive will focus on helping “economically and medically disadvantaged children and their families.”

Last year’s event raised $30,000, and the Tanners hope to equal or surpass that Sunday.

“We’ve had a $5,000 silent-auction bid (already),” Ray Tanner said. “The guy said, ‘Put it on anything you want to.’”

Tanner, who admits he once doubted a foundation named for him could make a financial impact, enthusiastically has added touches of his own.

The foundation sells plastic bracelets, similar to the Lance Armstrong “Live Strong” bracelets for cancer research, for $5 each. The garnet-and-white wristbands bearing the slogan “Ray of Hope” are available at www.raytannerfoundation.org or at the Gamecock Stop on Rosewood Drive.

“We let Gracie pick out the colors,” Tanner said. “She’s got it figured out for a 3-year-old.”

The bracelets “keep the message out there 365 days (a year),” Karen Tanner said.

It also makes sense that Tanner, one of the nation’s top college coaches, wants to help build a special synthetic-turf, wheelchair-friendly baseball field for handicapped children in the Midlands.

Miracle League, with outlets in Charleston, Mauldin, Greenwood, Myrtle Beach and Spartanburg, has a commitment from Lexington County Parks and Recreation to build such a field. Tanner wants to help fund that one or build another one. The cost of a field is about $250,000, a Miracle League spokeswoman said.

“I’m excited about the new (USC baseball) stadium we’re building, but that’s the first of two I want to be a part of,” Tanner said.

“If we didn’t have enough fields for kids to play on, there’d be an outrage, but for the special-needs population, we haven’t kept that pace. That’s why a field that can make this possible is needed so much.”

The Tanners on Sunday will present checks for $5,000 each to two local charities: The Family Shelter, which provides shelter to homeless families; and the Nurturing Center, which provides daycare for homeless or low-income families.

Tanner’s foundation last year held a 5K and 12K walk-run day that netted $6,000-$7,000, and plans are being made for a golf tournament this fall featuring former USC and Major League players Adam Everett and Brian Roberts, both of whom serve on the foundation’s board. Tanner’s clothing deal with Jewelry Warehouse puts five percent of sales into the foundation.

“We generated more than I expected” the first year,” Tanner said. “Now I’ve got my sights set on bigger and better.”

Tanner said his wife was the driving force behind the foundation. “I used to think, ‘I’m just a baseball coach, I can’t generate the money (football coach Steve) Spurrier does,’” he said.

“But what I found out was, these (donors) are all people like Karen and me. They want to help, and this is an avenue.”

Both Tanners regularly speak to charitable groups in support of the foundation. “It’s a part of our lives now,” KarenTanner said.

Just like the children.

Reach Senior Writer Bob Gillespie at (803) 771-8304.