Bob Goen joined Entertainment Tonight
in April 1993 as a correspondent and
weekend anchor, and was tapped as
substitute anchor shortly thereafter.
On May 31, 1996, he took his place along
with Mary Hart as anchor until he
retired from the show in 2004.
Bob has been a great supportor of the
Make-A-Wish Foundation of Colorado,
which grants the wishes of local
children with life-threatening
illnesses, through the annual celebrity
golf tournament that bears his name.
He established the Bob Goen’s Children’s
Charities, a national organization that
raises funds for various national and
local children’s charities in 2003.
Bob
spoke with Editor-in-Chief Gary Barg to
discuss his charitable work and
his life as a family caregiver.
Gary Barg: Can
you tell me about how you became
involved in so many different
charitable causes?
Bob Goen: I have
been raising money for a golf
tournament in Colorado for the
Make-A-Wish Foundation in Colorado
for many years. In 2004 I started a
new golf tournament, raising money
for the Bob Goen’s Children’s
Charities. We also raised funds for
Make-A-Wish and for the KIM
Foundation, an organization that
deals with abused kids and educates
their parents, and then for a group
called the Successive Six in Vale
Valley, Colorado where they deal
with after-school care for at-risk
kids.
GB: How
did you start the Bob Goen’s
Children’s Charities?
BG: We
thought that there were so many
areas where we could be raising
money and decided to start this
foundation, Bob Goen’s Children’s
Charities, and be able to raise
money anywhere in the country that
we want, and write a bigger check to
Make-A-Wish Colorado, to Children’s
Hospital, to the KIM Foundation, and
to whoever else may needs us.
Ultimately, I would like to expand
our efforts into the world of
Alzheimer’s as well, obviously
because of my connection with it.
GB: What
is your connection with Alzheimer’s
disease?
BG: When
my dad was diagnosed with
Alzheimer’s, my mom was determined
to keep him at home. She was able to
do that for about four years; but
then it obviously just didn’t work,
so we put him into a facility and he
died there two years ago.
GB: Can
you describe your father’s
transition from home to a facility?
BG: We
left it completely up to Mom the
whole time. She was shouldering the
burden from the word go, so we told
her that whenever you want to do it,
you tell us and we’ll get it done.
Wow, I’ll never forget the phone
call that one morning when she said,
“I just can’t do this anymore.” It
was the hardest thing she ever had
to do; but for us, the kids (I have
two older sisters), to go along with
that request was easy because we
weren’t living with it on a
day-to-day basis. The difficulty was
the actual process of putting him in
the home. That was, to this day, the
hardest day of my life. That’s the
most painful part of this whole
thing, emotionally. Taking Dad’s
stuff and putting him in the car and
having to make up this scenario as
to why he’s going there, basically
kind of lying to him, in order to
get him to just go along for a
while.
