Rodman to Give $52,000 to O.C. Cancer Center

ORANGE — Underneath all the body piercings, tattoos, multicolored hair, makeup and wedding dresses of Dennis Rodman lies one thing that has not received much attention lately: his heart.

At least that’s what Kim Weiner of Aliso Viejo believes after learning that basketball’s bad boy will donate more than $52,000 to the Pediatric Cancer Research Foundation in Orange.

“We were just thrilled and totally flabbergasted when we got the call,” Weiner said Friday. “We still can’t believe it.”

Making good on his promise to donate his earnings in each of his first 11 games back from suspension, Rodman has earmarked his salary of more than $52,000 from the Thursday game to the foundation.

“This is just wonderful,” said Cheryl Holt, executive director of the foundation, who said the money will go to a general fund for research unless Rodman specifies otherwise.

After being suspended for kicking a photographer during a game, the Chicago Bulls forward said he would donate his upcoming earnings to charity. He returned to playing in mid-February and has made promises of donations to 11 charitable groups, mostly in the Chicago area.

The Orange County gift originated with a request from John Weiner, Kim Weiner’s husband and a board member of the pediatric foundation. Weiner wrote a letter to Rodman’s publicist in Newport Beach, where the basketball star is a part-time resident, asking him to consider donating the money to the foundation.

“John had this notion that it never hurts to call,” Kim Weiner said.

The Weiners’ 5-year-old daughter, Samantha, was diagnosed with leukemia in 1992 and underwent a bone marrow transplant using her own bone marrow early the following year, an unusual procedure at the time. She received her last treatment in 1994, and doctors are upbeat about her recovery, her mother said.

The foundation, staffed mostly by volunteers, was founded 13 years ago when local families could not find the proper facilities to treat children with cancer. Since that time, the group has raised more than $4 million to combat the the No. 1 killer of children under 18.

Holt said she does not know when the foundation will receive the money, but she hopes to meet Rodman in person and shake his hand for what he has done in the fight against pediatric cancer.

“He certainly didn’t have to do this,” she said.