Nouveau Riche University teaches wealth creation, but more importantly, we teach people the responsibility wealth brings. Our CEO constantly reminds us that “to give you must have.” The message is clear. The vision is transparent. Learn to earn – KNOWLEDGE. Use that knowledge to create wealth – FREEDOM. Once you are established and your family is secure, leverage your knowledge and wealth for the greater good of your fellow man - POWER. Thus the Mantra: Knowledge, Freedom, Power.
Jim and Mary Piccolo and Bob Snyder are intensely focused on helping their fellow man. By creating this great company, Nouveau Riche University, they have assisted an incredible number of individuals and families in earning true freedom. More than that, they are dedicated to reaching out to those less fortunate. In a nutshell, our founders are people who aggressively “practice what they preach.”
During the last couple of months, they have devoted their efforts toward children’s charities. They believe we have no future as a country without education. As founders of a unique, real estate investing education company, they are focused on entrepreneurial education, but they also believe that foundational education must be dramatically improved. To see that growth, they believe children need to be given a fighting chance. In this complex world of choices and temptations, that’s easier said than done. Therefore, the charities they have chosen to support are causes that focus on intellectual and athletic development. On the following page(s), we’ll take a look at these charities and how the founders have become involved.
The founders believe that by helping children develop interests in sports and music combined with related Christian activities those children are less likely to succumb to the often dominant negative influences in their lives. Such interests keep these children from exploring the lure of “the other side.” As Bob Snyder has said, “Show kids a basketball or a guitar and what can be done with it and watch them turn their heads on temptation.”
READ ON. I think you will gain a greater level of admiration for our founders as you explore their philanthropic activities and the wonderful achievements emerging from those activities.
As you can clearly see, there are MANY reasons to be proud of your association with the Nouveau Riche University Community. And you thought we were just another “pretty face” or just another one of “those real estate seminar deals.” Think again!
Nouveau Riche University’s Founders Recent Charities of Choice…
See How Our Founders are Making a Serious Effort to Improve the Lives of Others in Need!
THE ROCK
Over the last ten years, legendary rock and roll entertainer, Alice Cooper, and his good friend, Chuck Savale, a former youth pastor, have teamed up in an effort to make a major impact on the lives of adolescents in Arizona and beyond. In November of 1995, along with a five member board of directors, they started the Solid Rock Foundation, to build solutions to the growing problem.
Mr. Cooper and Mr. Savale envisioned a center for teens, which would provide a means for them to grow and prepare for their future—THE ROCK Teen Center. A Christian-run, safe-haven for teens, THE ROCK will encourage the development of their talents, allowing them to build confidence in a supportive environment and discover their passions through self-expression and creativity in music, sports, and education. THE ROCK teen facility will be built on Grand Canyon University property donated to Solid Rock Foundation. It will attract local teens throughout the Valley of the Sun with a coffee house/main concert hall, open mic, recording and sound room, game room, computer lab, basketball/floor hockey court, and rock climbing walls, as well as football, baseball, and skateboarding.
Click here for a 3D tour of the lobby!
Working with local churches and community groups, the Solid Rock Foundation intends to design weekly events to encourage teens to make smart choices during their challenging adolescent years. THE ROCK also aims to work with Grand Canyon University staff to create quality after-school programs, where students can gain hands-on experience working with teens. Furthermore, it will strive to help teens develop their leadership skills by creating an advisory board of directors comprised of teens, who will meet regularly to discuss the pros and cons of the center and discuss their findings with the Board of Directors of Solid Rock Foundation.
(Alice Cooper and Jim Piccolo)
The total cost for building THE ROCK Teen Center is $7.3 million. Once THE ROCK is built, the annual financial need total is estimated at $618, 864. Nouveau Riche University’s founders are proud to help sponsor this amazing project and make a positive difference in the lives of our youth. To learn more about THE ROCK and the Solid Rock Foundation, visit: http://www.srfrock.org.
JUDI’S HOUSE
Judi’s House was founded in 2002 by Brian Griese, currently the Quarterback with the Chicago Bears, in honor of his mother Judi, who died when he was twelve years old. Judi’s House aims to help grieving youth between the ages of three and eighteen in finding hope and healing in the loss of their loved ones. It provides youth with a unique opportunity to participate in peer support groups with people their own age who are going through similar things.
Judi’s House offers free grief support services to help ensure no child feels alone in grief. Since its opening in 2002, it has helped over 1,700 youth and adult caregivers. Unlike other support groups, children meet in age appropriate groups and a mental health professional and trained volunteers facilitate the group, but do not counsel. Instead, children lead one another through their grief process, as they talk about their feelings and express themselves in a variety of activities. Judi’s House offers four types of groups (on-going, time-limited, Spanish-speaking, and in-school) and lets the individual decide how long he/she wants to continue attending group. Adult caregivers also have the opportunity to meet with other caregivers while their children are in group, which grants them the ability to discuss their own grief and learn about grief so that they may better understand their children’s behavior.
Brian Griese, Bob Griese with Mary and Jim Piccolo at Judi's House!
Brian Griese and his father Bob Griese are personal friends of NRU Co-founders Mary and Jim Piccolo, who have had the distinct privilege of helping support their organization’s efforts. To learn more about Judi’s House, visit: http://www.judishouse.org.
“HOCKEY NIGHT IN ARIZONA”
The “Hockey Night in Arizona” charity event on February 1, 2007 drew crowds from near and far to help raise money for Arizona’s aspiring super-star hockey players. Thousands joined in to support the financial needs of the Phoenix Firebirds, who have earned a spot at the Quebec City World Championship of Peewee Hockey, as Arizona’s first hockey team to represent Arizona at this tournament! Each year, young hockey players from 16 countries travel to Quebec City, Canada to play against the best of the best in this tournament of champions. The Phoenix Firebirds join the ranks of many of NHL’s best who have experienced this life-changing event, including Brad Park, Guy Lafleur, Mark Howe, Wayne Gretzky, and Eric Lindros.
“Hockey Night in Arizona” was a night to help make dreams come true for these hopeful athletes. It featured a Phoenix Coyotes versus Nashville Predators game, dinner in the Rink Side Club, plus special events with Phoenix Coyotes General Manager Michael Barnett, Claude Lemieux, Jeremy Roenick, Curtis Joseph, Ulf Samuelson, Ladislav Nagy, Shane Doan, and Mike Comrie. The event also included a special performance by Pac Dancers, youth hockey players showing off their skills in a short game and shoot out contest, a Silent Auction, and the chance to meet NHL players and coaches.
Phil Carroll, organizer of “Hockey Night in Arizona,” is a personal friend of NRU Co-founders Jim and Mary Piccolo. The NRU founders have “paid it forward” by offering a Regents Tuition package complete with NRU merchandise in the Silent Auction, raising thousands of dollars for the young athletes.
CELEBRITY FIGHT NIGHT – “Winning the Fight for Charities”
Celebrity Fight Night is considered one of the nation’s elite charity events. For the past twelve years, this unforgettable event honoring featured guest, Muhammad Ali, a man who has focused his life on humanitarian efforts, has helped to support countless charities in helping people in need. It has been said that “No athlete has ever contributed more to the life of his country, or the world, than Muhammad Ali.”
During Celebrity Fight Night, celebrities and professional athletes from across the world participate in a Live Auction, amazing performances from some of the latest and greatest stars, and most importantly, raise funds for several charities. Thanks to the remarkable generosity of supporters over the last twelve years, Celebrity Fight Night has raised more than $38 million with the Muhammad Ali Parkinson Center at Barrow Neurological Institute in Phoenix as the primary beneficiary. It has also benefited scores of other charities and numerous lives.
(Robin Williams and Mary Piccolo Support Fight Night!)
Celebrity Fight Night Foundation, Inc. is a non-profit organization established to promote the ongoing efforts to eliminate sickness and poverty. The Foundation provides free treatment and medicine for people of all ages regardless of their ability to pay at the Muhammad Ali Parkinson Center at Barrow Neurological Institute in Phoenix. It also contributes to research efforts to find a cure for devastating diseases and provides funding to non-profit organizations that create opportunities for youth and their families who live in our threatening and vulnerable neighborhoods.
“Service to others is the rent you pay for your room here on earth,” said Muhammad Ali. Nouveau Riche University founders, Mary and Jim Piccolo and Bob Snyder are helping to enrich the lives of many through their support of this amazing event. This year’s event will be held on March 24th. To learn more about Celebrity Fight Night, visit: http://www.celebrityfightnight.org.
PROJECT WATER PURIFIERS TO AFRICA
“In Ethiopia and Kenya, access to improved water sources isn’t available to 76% of the population,” said Justin Narducci, a graduate student at Thunderbird School of Global Management in Glendale, AZ. Specializing in international development, Justin participates in an international development forum. Through this forum, he became aware of a potential donation of 20k water purification units from a company who, due to FDA regulations, could not sell the units in the United States. (The units’ earliest expiration date is June, 2007, and although the units are perfectly operable after the expiration date, the FDA only allows for a standard lifespan of two years for such products.) Justin immediately thought of Florence Muindi, a medical doctor running the non-profit organization Life in Abundance International (LIA) in both Ethiopia and Kenya, whom he spent ten days with in Ethiopia helping her organization about thirteen months prior. Florence’s organization strives to improve health conditions for the poor in Ethiopia and Kenya by empowering the local churches to take care of those in their midst.
Justin worked to secure 13k of the remaining units to support the LIA mission to help orphans, AIDS victims, and the urban poor in Africa. He stated, “The Triton purifiers will be provided to members of the communities to produce clean drinking water for entire households. By not having to boil their water, fuel will be better utilized for cooking purposes, and health will also improve dramatically….[even] after the filtration capacity is reached, the units will still provide extremely high levels of purified water that will kill the bacteria at a nearly perfect capacity.”
After securing the 13k units, Justin faced the challenge of raising approximately $8k to ship them to Africa before they expire, so as to import them duty free. Justin’s target ship date is before the end of March, 2007.
When Justin’s father, Tony Narducci, an advocate for the Solid Rock Foundation and personal friend of NRU CEO Jim Piccolo, informed him of Justin’s cause, Jim Piccolo whole-heartedly offered to contribute the remaining funds necessary to ship the units. To learn more about Justin’s efforts, visit: http://www.TryingNotToSellOut.Org
