Celebrities Tee Off For Frank Sinatra Tournament

You can always count on pro football player-turned-actor Ed Marinaro to be at the Frank Sinatra Celebrity Invitational every year.

“I won the very first Frank Sinatra in Palm Springs at the Palm Canyon Country Club,” he said.

But, many of the celebrities play in the annual event for good reasons. This year’s co-host Pat Boone said there was nothing he wouldn’t do for Barbara Sinatra. He called her the “Mother Theresa of the desert.”

“That’s not an exaggeration,” Boone said, “because she does the same kind of work in saving young kids’s lives from desperation.”

The Sinatra family launched the tournament in 1988 to raise money for the Barbara Sinatra Children’s Center located at Eisenhower Medical Center. The center helps abused kids.

“It’s such a great cause,” said actor Joe Regalbuto, who starred in “Murphy Brown. “We have to help the kids. They’re getting a beating lately.”

Every penny raised during the tournament, including the spectators’ admission fees, benefits the Children’s Center. Other events include a fashion show on Friday and a black-tie gala on Saturday evening.

For more information about the events, please go to www.franksinatragolf.org