FUNDRAISER ALERT! Raising Money For Amateur Boxers To Attend College

The American Association for the Improvement of Boxing (AAIB) Boxers Assistance Corporation funds scholarships for boxers who are high school graduates and need support to take the next step, learning at college.

Since 2013, the AAIB has distributed over $250,000 for amateur boxers to continue their higher education. So, this is a most worthy cause.

 The organization is holding a fundraising event, an auction, with some stellar items up for bid.

These include:

—A dinner for 6 at the home of Gianni Russo from the all-time film classic “The Godfather“

—A signed guitar by Artemis Pyle of Lynyrd Skynyrd

—Personalized Tours for two, at the Muhammad Ali camp in Deer Lake, Pennsylvania (including two t-shirts), International Boxing Hall of Fame, Canastota, New York, and New Jersey Boxing Hall of Fame, Lodi, New Jersey

If you would rather make a cash donation, please visit their website.  If you donate $100 or more, you will be listed as a sponsor and receive three autographed boxing cards, and a signed Emile Griffith photo, as well.

AAIB, by the way, was founded in 1969 by Rocky Marciano and Steve Acunto (below).

Steve was head coach of boxing at Westchester Community College, where he developed and taught the only boxing course for college credit in existence. He was inducted into the World Boxing Hall of Fame in 1988, the New Jersey Boxing Hall of Fame in 1998, and was an inaugural inductee into the New York State Boxing Hall of Fame in 2013. He passed away in 2018, at the age of 101.

Marciano, the real “Rocky,” held the heavyweight championship from 1952-1956. He hung up the mitts in ’56, at age 32, with a 49-0 record. 

Marciano perished in a plane crash, in 1969. 

This program recognizes the fact that there are very few collegiate boxing programs in the United States. There is little financial assistance for a stand-out amateur boxer who wants to continue their education process. Scholarships are most hard to come by, so AAIB is to be appluaded, for trying to fill this void.