June 9, 2011
James Franklin will spend an hour Thursday afternoon on the radio urging listeners to support a community program created nearly three decades ago by former Vanderbilt men’s basketball great Charles Davis that enriches the lives of local inner-city youngsters.
Franklin is set to appear with Davis and other local sports personalities on Nashville’s 104.5 The Zone for the Charles Davis Foundation Radiothon. Franklin’s segment on the show hosted by George Plaster and Willy Daunic is from 4-5 p.m., CT. The show will broadcast from Ferguson’s Bath & Kitchen Gallery, located on Powell Avenue across from Vanderbilt’s 100 Oaks property.
This marks the 19th annual Davis Foundation Radiothon. In 2010, the event raised $102,300 through on-air appeals, auctions and a collection of dinner programs featuring current and former Tennessee Titans.
Raised in a public housing development in south Nashville, Davis starred as a forward at Vanderbilt from 1977-81 after a celebrated prep career in the city. Drafted in the second round of the 1981 NBA Draft, Davis enjoyed a eight-year career with stops in Washington, Milwaukee, San Antonio and Chicago.
Davis started the foundation after his rookie NBA season. Aimed at “Giving Back to Our Future,” foundation programs seek to enhance the quality of life for thousands of residents of Nashville’s most impoverished areas. The array of programs include sports camps and leagues, mentoring, job placement and training, tutoring, computer training, drug prevention, character development, HIV/AIDS awareness, survival skills, scholarship, financial aid, guest lectures, cultural exposure and economic development.
More than 1,200 Nashville youth are served by Davis Foundation programs that operate nine months a year.
For more on the Davis Foundation and radiothon, go to http://www.1045thezone.com//sectional.asp?id=37809.