10. Elliott Sadler Professional athletes have unique opportunities to give thanks for their prosperity. They have resources to share and the platform to raise money and awareness. Many athletes do that, with gestures small (Dallas Cowboys QB Tony Romo taking a homeless man to a movie) and large (golfer Tiger Woods' 35,000-square-foot learning center in Orange County, Calif.) to help their communities. Here are 10 athletes who have earned a Thanksgiving salute:The NASCAR driver didn't know what autism was until his niece, Halie, was diagnosed with it in 2001. He and his brother established the Hermie and Elliott Sadler Foundation to raise money for research and family assistance. They have joined others in the stock car racing community — including FOX Sports director Artie Kempner and driver Jamie McMurray — to fight for this cause. "We meet on the racetrack all the time with families who have autism in their lives," Sadler once wrote. "They share stories, and that has helped us with Halie. Sometimes parents will be bawling because they're so grateful for what we do. I met a family in Ohio a few years ago who named one of their children after me — not because of who I am on the racetrack, but because of my charity work. That's special to me." 9. Kurt Warner The Arizona Cardinals quarterback never forgets where he came from. While back in St. Louis for a Christian speaking engagement over the winter, Warner wedged in time for an autograph event to raise money for flood relief for his native Iowa. "Just because the water goes away doesn't mean that everything goes back to normal," Warner said at the event, which drew 400 people. "Houses are destroyed, lives are torn apart. You think about losing everything in your home. Where do you start over? Where do you begin? You know it just pulled at me. Seeing families, talking to people that had been affected, it was hard." When the Cardinals played in St. Louis this season, Warner's First Things First foundation staged a coat drive for underprivileged people in the area. (He started it while playing for the Rams). He has also partnered with Warrick Dunn's Homes for the Holidays program. Kurt and his wife Brenda take a hands-on role in his charitable ventures, like Camp Barnabas for special-needs children. They have personally hosted Make-a-Wish excursions to DisneyWorld. 8. Dwyane Wade The Miami Heat superstar has built an impressive portfolio of endorsement deals. Those corporate partnerships allow him to get a lot of work done in communities — such as funding renovations at his old high school, H.L. Richards in suburban Chicago, with the help of the T-Mobile Sidekick brand. Earlier this year, he completed his most personal project to date: buying a church for his mother, Jolinda Wade. She is now the minister at the Temple of Praise in Chicago. This was the culmination of her remarkable turnaround from a life nearly lost to drug abuse and crime. "I respect my mother so much, from the life that she used to live and to see her today in the life that she lives. I'm so proud of her," Wade told The Associated Press before the inaugural service. "Everybody thinks I'm the miraculous story in the family. I think she is. I think what I've done means I've been very blessed, but she's been more than blessed. She's been anointed." 7. Vincent Lecavalier The Tampa Bay Lightning center got an 11-year, $85 million contract extension over the summer. But before he signed that massive deal, he pledged $3 million to the All-Children's Hospital in St. Petersburg to help underwrite a new pediatric cancer and blood disorder center. That generosity earned him the NHL's King Clancy Memorial Award for leadership on and off the ice. But for Lecavalier, seeing progress at the hospital is a greater reward. "It's more for research. It's exciting," he said. "I went with the hard hat and everything. I met most of the doctors over there and the researchers and what they want to do. I'm happy to be a part of that, and I'll have my little bit of input on what they're doing. I really love their vision. 6. Hines Ward The Pittsburgh Steelers receiver assists numerous Pennsylvania charities, including the Caring Foundation — which helps families facing medical crises without health insurance. But his big crusade is overseas. The Hines Ward Helping Hands Foundation aids biracial children in Korea facing harsh discrimination. He started the fund with $1 million of his own money and doubled that though fundraising. "When I went back to Korea, I visited kids," Ward told The New York Times. "For that brief time that I was there, it was amazing to the kids. The teasing went down with the kids. It was cool to be biracial to the kids. After we won the Super Bowl, and everybody was jumping on the bandwagon as far as, 'He's Korean. He's Korean.' For the kids, the biracial kids, they were accepted in their school. For them, for once in their life, they weren't called harsh things. They were actually being praised. I was hearing so many stories from their teachers. Kids shouldn't be saying things like, 'There's no life, there's no purpose for me.' For that week, you didn't hear any comments like that." 5. Carlos Delgado Earlier in his career, the Mets slugger took heat for protesting the Iraq war. While a member of the Blue Jays, he remained in the dugout during the playing of "God Bless America." He ended this protest, but, as he told The New York Times, "It takes a man to stand up for what he believes." The principled Delgado won the Clemente Award in 2006 for his community work in New York, Canada and his native Puerto Rico. His Extra Bases Foundation served many causes, including the Good Samaritan Hospital in Aquadilla, Puerto Rico. A $250,000 pledge helped the hospital finance a live teleconferencing/ telemedicine program with Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, allowing doctors to learn state-of-the-art procedures. "I'm very fortunate," Delgado once told The Miami Herald. "I'm grateful. I get up every morning. I can walk. I can touch things. I can breathe. I can run around. I do it (donate to charity) because I feel that it is right. I don't do it because people like it, or it looks good." 4. Steve Nash The Phoenix Suns guard is a Canadian citizen who went to college in California and married a native of Paraguay. Along the way, he gained an informed world view. So his outreach spans the globe, from Phoenix (refurbishing basketball courts) to China (helping Houston Rockets center Yao Ming improve rural education) and Vancouver (AIDS awareness efforts). The Steve Nash Foundation was especially helpful to the Hospital de Clinicas in Asuncion, Paraguay — an aging facility struggling to offer modern medical care. "We found out about a little boy there who needed heart surgery as a newborn, but they simply didn't have the equipment to do it," Nash told USA Weekend. "My wife has a friend who works in the hospital who told us that she saw another baby there turning blue. She asked why the baby wasn't in an incubator. They told her that there were only two incubators, and they were occupied by babies who had a better chance to live. It's amazing that the things we take for granted here amount to a dream over there." 3. Warrick Dunn The Tampa Bay Buccaneers running back has a passion for getting deserving single parents and their children into their own homes. His Homes for the Holidays has assisted 78 families in the Southeast. The Warrick Dunn Foundation provides the down payment on houses for worthy candidates and helps furnish the homes. Dunn, a past winner of the NFL's Walter Payton Man of the Year Award, draws inspiration from his own family story. His mother, police officer Betty Smothers, was killed during an attempted robbery in 1993. She died before she could move her children into their own home. "Some moms have been abused by their former husbands," Dunn once explained. "Some are successfully overcoming drug addiction. They've been working hard for this opportunity. When we show them their new homes, they jump up and down and give me a big squeeze. I've seen teenage boys, not just the girls, cry. When that happens, you know you've made a difference in a family's life." 2. Lolo Jones Hurdler Lolo Jones doesn't make a fortune running track. But she pledged her $4,000 winnings at the U.S. Olympic trials for flood relief in her native Iowa. She got sponsors Asics and Oakley to match the pledge. FEMA officials helped her identify a family in need. Jones personally presented flood victim Renee Trout with $12,000 to help the single mother her get life back on track. "My mom's a single mother," Jones said, according to the Des Moines Register. "And my mom worked two jobs and raised five kids, and that's a tough life. At one point, I was homeless. I was living in a church when I was growing up. So this comes about. I can't believe I'm in this position to help out someone who's just been devastated by these floods and just feel honored to do so." That gesture inspired her other sponsors and supporters to step up with donations to the Embrace Iowa campaign. 1. Albert Pujols The St. Louis Cardinals first baseman teared up when he accepted baseball's 2008 Clemente Award for community service. He savors that more than his two NL MVP awards, since it honors Roberto Clemente — the Hall of Fame outfielder killed in a plane crash while on a humanitarian mission. "We today remember (Clemente) as a great man that loved other people and gave back to the community, whether in Pittsburgh or Nicaragua or Latin America or Puerto Rico," Pujols told reporters after accepting the award. "And I feel that's my responsibility, too, not just to be a baseball player, but to give back to others, whether in St. Louis or the United States or back in the Dominican Republic every year." The Pujols Family Foundation supports myriad causes, from the treatment for Down syndrome to the Boys & Girls Club of America to the Ronald McDonald House. "Like I was 15 years ago, a poor little boy in the Dominican Republic, my dream was just to be a professional baseball player," Pujols said. "They might be somebody that day that you touch. And that person may become the best baseball player ever in the future. And probably in the future will thank me or any of us that touched their life." -- Jeff Gordon
