Bill Clinton at the CareerBuilder Challenge
Former President Bill Clinton took time off from the campaign trail in snowy Iowa and New Hampshire to host a charity golf tournament today, but told a reporter he feels “kind of guilty” for being in the sunny Coachella Valley.
“I feel kind of guilty because we are so close to the Iowa caucus and New Hampshire primary,” Clinton told the Desert Sun newspaper. “But I made a commitment to this and I want to honor it.”
“This” is the CareerBuilder Challenge golf tournament this weekend, and the Bill Clinton Foundation’s Health Matters conference Sunday and Monday.
The overlapping events are at the Renaissance Indian Wells Resort and Spa. The Health Matters conference, an annual event started four years ago, focuses on various community-centered health outreach efforts, including one for tens of thousands of impoverished residents of the Coachella Valley just a few miles east of the spa.
Chelsea Clinton, among other speakers, was unable to attend the event due to Winter Storm Jonas, which struck the East Coast.
However, the 5th annual event hosted by President Clinton and Clinton Foundation President Donna E. Shalala, will continue almost as planned through Monday, featuring talks from medical professionals, athletes, and business leaders regarding health issues and potential solutions to be had in the Coachella Valley and the nation at-large.
The two-day summit kicked off today at La Quinta High School, where volunteers built a community garden for the campus and prepared 150 meals to be donated to the Joslyn Center’s Meals on Wheels Program.
Sunday’s activities will conclude tonight at 7 p.m. with a Town-Hall style meeting in the resort’s Crystal Ballroom, the first of several health forums slated through Monday. Sunday’s forum on the effects of technological innovation in health was to be moderated by Clinton and focus on the potential benefits that new technologies, including wider Internet access, can have for underserved populations.
Monday’s docket was to begin bright and early with a 7 a.m. workout for all attendees.
Forums throughout Monday will cover rising death, suicide and substance abuse rates among middle-aged White Americans, scaling health solutions for public, private and philanthropic health ventures, health equity, improving employee health, and the community’s role in health innovation.
Those attending Monday morning’s Opening Plenary at 9 a.m. will also see a one-on-one discussion with Shalala and World Cup and Olympic soccer champion Abby Wambach regarding women and girls in sports.
Clinton, Shalala, Rock Health co-founder Dr. Nate Gross and Victoria Kumpuris Brown, Senior Program Officer of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation will be Monday’s moderators.
“It looks like we’re off to a pretty good start here,” the 42nd president said of the golf tourney. “We’ve got (Phil) Mickelson off to a good start, (Angel) Cabrera’s off to a good start,” he said. “I love the Jason Dufner story.”
