In 1992, Arnold Schwarzenegger founded After-School All-Stars to provide quality
learning experiences that ALL kids deserve. Every year in Columbus, Ohio The Arnold
Sports Festival (aka The Arnold Classic) is hosted every year making it bigger than the
Olympics. More than 200,000 people come to attend this great event at The Great
Columbus Convention Center.
The Experience Arnold Event hosted its 5th year anniversary. Board member Chris
O’Shaughnessy, a fellow citizen of Ohio, hosts this event every year. Every year it is
hosted at different venues and this year it was hosted at Huntington Park in Columbus,
Ohio.
This year, there were multiple companies representing cigars and even fine jewelry for
sale. Barclay Pipe Tobacco and Cigar Bar were the ones who provided cigars/stogies for
the attendees. Meyers Jewelers Fine Jewelry and Watches provided watches for silent
auction such as a Breitling.
Celebrity Attendees and Guests included , Chris O’Shaugnessy (Board member of After
School All Stars), Tracy Ensign (Executive Director), Allison Ansari (Development
Manager ASAS), Ben Paul (National Leader For ASAS) Jim Lorimer, Randy Couture
(UFC Figher & featured in the Expendables Series), Ben The Jet Urquidez, Michael
Buffer (Famous Boxing Ring Announcer), Cynthia Rothrock, Chris Kirkpatrick
(NSYNC), Chef Rush (White House Chef), Gabriel Luna (Terminator: Dark Fate), Matt
Iseman (Host of American Ninja Warrior, The New Celebrity Apprentice Winner),
Robert Goldman (International Sports Hall of Fame) and the main guest of the hour
Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Guests were able to pay a minimum of $350 individually or $500 per couple to be part of the event and donations from $2,500 and above were given sponsor status.
Included in the price was two drink tickets for premium drinks, open cigars, food and
appetizers are provided and you're able to socialize with people involved in either the
ASAS, companies involved in the Arnold Sports Festival and socializing with celebrities.
Lets take a walk-through of entering the event. When entered into the room, you are
welcomed like you are on the red carpet. A greeting from hosts and a photographer
waiting to take a picture of you and your guest with a backdrop.
Once the picture was taken, you were then welcomed with a glass of champagne. On
your left there are several memorabilia items available for silent auction. Whether it be a
Governors Jacket signed by Arnold himself to a signed Mike Tyson Punch Out Print
signed by Mike Tyson himself, all these items' proceeds went to the After-School All-Stars.
Other surprises included cosplay of people dressed up as a female purple predator, Mr.
Freeze, etc.
Governor Schwarzenegger with his Arnold Team arrived at 6:00PM to greet other
celebrities and to present a speech and to help Matt Iseman get the crowd pumped up for
the silent auction.One of the biggest donations was $100,000 by Gym Launch Secret by Alex & Leila
Hormozi.
Arnold’a Speech During The ASAS Event:
“Thank you, thank you very much. To the people at the bar, I have a message for
you…. SHUT UUUUPP!! Thank You. You see we are not here today to just schmooze.
Today we are here for the kids. So if you wanna be part of this fundraiser, make sure that
there is many children in Columbus that need after school programs. It will be very silent.
See now this is very silent. Now we can introduce a little bit of the footage of after school
programs so that you all can understand what after school programs is all about. Because
this is a very very important program for children that don’t have parents to go home in
the afternoon. They stay in school 5 days a week Monday Thru Friday from 3Pm-6PM,
get homework assistance, tutoring, sports/fitness programs and art programs and it
basically gets them off the streets, so it gets them away from violence, gangs, drugs,
juvenile crimes, teenage pregnancies, all this usually happens between 3pm-6pm which
laws enforcement has already said many times that this is the danger zone for children.
So this is why after school programs is absolutely essential for our children and so now
you are going to see a video so that you can learn more about after school programs, so
lets go, show the video.”
The Experience Arnold Event is a great event to give back, have fun, and share a room in
an intimate setting to socialize and interact with celebrities and guests and of course
Arnold Schwarzenegger.
