Ribera, N.M. – Don Imus’ banishment from the public airwaves also deprives him of a critical platform to raise money for the sprawling Imus Ranch, where children with cancer and other illnesses get a taste of the cowboy life.
Before he was fired last week for insulting the Rutgers University women’s basketball team, Imus pointed to the northern New Mexico ranch to make his case that he is “a good person who said a bad thing.” With Imus out of a job, some wonder whether the pipeline to charity money will eventually dry up.
Just as corporate sponsors backed away from his radio show, “I think you’ll see a similar effect on the charity, where the corporate donors will find a less hot-button charity to support,” said Trent Stamp, president of Charity Navigator, a New Jersey-based charity watchdog group.
Imus said he and his wife, Deirdre, are round-the-clock surrogate parents to the youngsters who spend a week at the property, nearly half of whom are from minority groups; 10 percent are black.
“There’s not an African- American parent on the planet who has sent their child to the Imus Ranch who didn’t trust me and trust my wife,” he said on his show.
“And when these kids die, we don’t just go to the white kids’ funeral.”
Kansas horseman Rob Phillips says he still plans to give the ranch proceeds from a 500-mile charity race he’s staging this fall.
