Come Together Celebration Sunday at DTE Energy Music Theatre

Palace Sports & Entertainment and Detroit Pistons to honor three community game changers

AUBURN HILLS, Mich. – Basketball and entertainment combine for one night when Palace Sports & Entertainment and the Detroit Pistons present the first-ever Come Together Celebration featuring Grammy award-winning artist Sheryl Crow beginning at 6 p.m. on Sunday, August 12 at DTE Energy Music Theatre. Detroit area native and up-and-coming country/pop artist Paulina Jayne will perform when doors open at 5:30 p.m.

During the private event for Palace, DTE, Meadowbrook and Detroit Pistons "Black", "Red" and "Royal" members as well as corporate partners and invited guests, Pistons' players and personalities will engage attendees during exclusive pre-show festivities while three community game changers will be honored with "Impact" awards during a special program. The evening will culminate with an exclusive celebration concert by contemporary singer/songwriter Sheryl Crow, whose long list of accolades include nine Grammy Awards and seven studio albums which have 35 million copies worldwide.

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As part of the celebration, the Pistons-Palace Foundation will be re-launched as the Come Together Foundation - a 501 (c)(3) charity that supports the overall Come Together vision by strategically collaborating with community organizations to raise awareness and provide financial support in the areas of volunteerism, youth leadership and NBA League sponsored programs.

The Come Together Foundation will present Darnell Hall from the Think Detroit PAL program in Detroit, Catrina Harvey from the Kids' Food Basket (KFB) program in Grand Rapids and Natasha Thomas-Jackson from the Raise It Up! Youth Arts & Awareness program in Flint with the first-ever "Impact" awards for outstanding leadership and community contributions in the areas of youth leadership and athletics, volunteerism and youth leadership and entertainment. In addition to being recognized as a Come Together award winner, the foundation will present a $25,000 grant to each of the awardees respective programs in their honor.

"Every day people throughout Michigan are doing things that make a meaningful difference in their communities," said Tom Gores. "The Come Together program is a great way to recognize those people and inspire others to make an impact of their own."

Hall, a Detroit Police Officer, was raised in the city and through the support of his parents, became heavily involved in youth athletics through the Detroit Police Athletic League at age eight. He went on to run track at Pershing High School, winning the state championship in the 400 meter, and later ran track at Blinn College in Texas. Following his second season at Blinn, Hill made the 1992 U.S. Olympic track team as a 4 x 400 meter relay alternate and won a gold medal in Barcelona, Spain. He spends countless hours helping youngsters in Detroit pursue their athletic dreams as the commissioner of the track and field and football programs for Think Detroit PAL, growing the track and field program from 20 kids in 1999 to over 560 participants annually.

Harvey, the program coordinator for the Kids Helping Kids program, joined Kids' Food Basket in 2009 after serving as a long-time volunteer with her six children. Through her dedicated work in this program, Kids' Food Basket provides brown-sack dinners to more than 4,800 nutritionally at-risk youngsters in the greater Grand Rapids area each weekday. Her dedication has helped establish a Youth Action Board within the various schools Kids' Food Basket supports that is charged with spearheading service projects and additional hunger-related efforts within the Grand Rapids community.

Thomas-Jackson, a passionate poet and writer who has served as a mentor to local youth throughout Flint-area schools and churches, established the Raise It Up! Youth Arts & Awareness program in 2009 as a 501(c)(3) charity. The program consists of five core areas that help young people deal with social and societal challenges through art and expression. Raise It Up! recently sent a group of poets to compete nationally at the Brave New Voices International Poetry Festival and Competition in San Francisco, CA. The competition brings together over 600 youth from 50 cities across the United States each year. Youngsters participating in Raise It Up! programs learn that art is creativity and can be applied to many things, not just painting or performing. They end up working on albums, chat books, or whatever organically evolves from their mentoring collaborations.