Pack’s Woodson donates money to hospital

Football: Charles Woodson wants to be known as more than a football player.

Donating $2 million to the new University of Michigan Mott Children’s Hospital and Women’s Hospital gives him a chance to do that.

The school announced Woodson’s gift on Thanksgiving before he played for the Green Bay Packers against the Detroit Lions.

Woodson’s money will support pediatric research by The Charles Woodson Clinical Research Fund in the $754-million, 1.1-million square foot hospital slated to open in 2012.

He hopes to attract the world’s best researchers who want to help children with cancer, heart disease, kidney disorders and autism.

Associated Press

Touched by N.C. girl’s death, Shaq pays for funeral

Basketball: NBA star Shaquille O’Neal paid for the funeral of a 5-year-old North Carolina girl after being moved by national news coverage of the case of Shaniya Davis, who police say was kidnapped and killed.

The Cleveland Cavaliers player was touched by the stories he saw and got in touch with the family to see what he could do to help, a spokeswoman for O’Neal said.

More than 2,000 people attended the girl’s funeral Sunday. Her body was found Nov. 16 beside a rural road.

Her mother, Antionette Davis, who had reported the child missing six days earlier, is charged with human trafficking and child abuse involving prostitution. Mario McNeill is charged with murder, rape and kidnapping in the case.

“I was sitting at home watching it on the news and the story brought a tear to my eye,” O’Neal told The Cleveland Plain Dealer newspaper.

Associated Press