In the News
08/12/08
The Farm is taking shape
To some, it may simply be a building.
To Hannah and her friends with “different abilities,” however, the opening of the new Eck Rec Center marks the beginning of a new home.
After numerous fundraising events and months of construction that is still ongoing, the first buildings are completed on the Hannah and Friends Farm, which will serve as a home for adults with special needs.
08/12/08
Inspiration from a Coach's Wife
"“Miles From The Sideline” is a book you have to read. It’s written by Maura Weis, the wife of Notre Dame coach Charlie Weis. The book deals with “a mother’s journey with her special needs daughter.”
While her husband has a high-profile job and has accomplished much in South Bend, Ind., and with the New England Patriots before that, it pales compared to the sacrifices Maura has made raising their daughter Hannah. In the book, Maura discusses the challenges she and her family have faced – and the way their daughter has changed their lives in countless positive ways and showed them what love really is.
It’s not often we get a peek inside the private life of a high-profile coach. Knowing what Weis and his wife have done – and how they have grown as people – is inspirational. It makes a football game look like a silly and insignificant proposition. By Tom Dienhart - Yahoo! Sports
06/08/08
Quinn, Theismann, Holtz: Big Names golf for Hannah & Friends
The big names came out in full force for the Hannah & Friends Gala and Golf Classic this weekend.
Charlie and Maura Weis had to be thrilled with the turnout.
The great event concluded with a golf scramble Saturday at Warren Golf Course with the likes of Brady Quinn, Lou Holtz, Joe Theismann and Mike Golic participating.
On Friday night, the Gala was held where Hannah & Friends supporters bid on the favorite Irish celebrity they most wanted to be partnered with for a round of golf.
05/09/08
Charlie Weis Appointed To President's Committee For People With Intellectual Disabilities
President George W. Bush announced today the appointment of Notre Dame head football coach Charlie Weis to The President's Committee for People with Intellectual Disabilities. Weis was one of 13 individuals appointed to the Committee and begins his two-year term May 12, 2008.
05/09/08
Football coach chosen for President's Committee for People with Intellectual Disabilities
The phone call came just days ago, while Charlie Weis was sitting in an airplane hangar in Houston.
The calling has been with the Notre Dame head football coach much longer.
He made the promise to himself six years ago, when a surgical procedure took a near fatal turn and then, just as quickly and dramatically, offered Weis a second chance and a new perspective on life.
Friday's announcement that Weis had been appointed to the President's Committee for People with Intellectual
04/25/08
Coach's wife writes book
"Miles from the Sideline" is a book about a mother's journey with her disabled daughter.
It is also an encouraging story for other mothers who have children with special needs.
Maura Weis, wife of Notre Dame football coach Charlie Weis, shares her personal challenges raising their 13-year-old daughter, Hannah, who has a rare developmental disorder.
"There are two paths that you can take when it comes to devastating news of any kind. You can break down or you can let it make you stronger," said Weis.04/19/08
Notre Dame Students Run to Support Hannah & Friends
The Blue-Gold festivities started early for many on Notre Dame's campus, and not just tailgaters.
Hundreds of students showed up despite a little rain for a 5-k run around Notre Dame's campus to benefit Hannah and Friends.
Coach Weis spoke to the crowd about Hannah and Friends before starting the race, and organizers say it was great to see the support from the student body.
3/2008 - Present
Hannah and Friends Billboard
Special Thanks to Burkhart Advertising for donating a promotional package of Hannah and Friends billboards strategically located throughout the South Bend/Michiana Area!
02/28/08
A Conversation with Maura Weis
When you hear the name Weis mentioned along with the word sideline, you undoubtedly think of Notre Dame football. In this case, there is a Notre Dame connection, but this story takes place miles from the sideline at Notre Dame Stadium.
Maura Weis, wife of Notre Dame football coach Charlie Weis, has written a book called “Miles from the Sideline.” The book covers her journey with her special needs daughter Hannah.
The Weis home is filled with pictures of a happy marriage, and a beautiful son and daughter. It seems like a storybook life, but getting to their current lifestyle wasn’t an easy journey.
02/26/08
MAURA WEIS | N.D. football coach's wife writes about daughter's ordeal in book
The hardest part, says Maura Weis, was seeing her daughter disappear before her eyes.
Hannah was born with kidney problems; doctors had, in fact, suggested a late-term abortion. But Weis -- like husband Charlie, Notre Dame's football coach -- doesn't give up easy.
After a rocky start, Hannah was developing normally. At 2 years old, she was smiling, laughing, talking. And then it just . .. faded away.
"Hannah was there, and then she wasn't," says Weis.
Her daughter stopped speaking, stopped responding. And Weis began her nightmarish hunt for what was causing the regression.
01/30/08
Hannah Dover does the Right Thing
Hannah Dover, 4th grade, Queen of Peace School -- Hannah was nominated by her teacher, Sue Bieganski of Queen of Peace School. It was brought to the attention of the school that Hannah had forgone her own birthday gifts for the past two years to help raise money for a charity, "Hannah and Friends," which raises money to better the quality of life for children and adults with special needs.
Hannah feels a special bond toward this charity because she and Hannah Weis (whom the organization is named after) are in the same grade and are about the same age. To date, Hannah Dover has raised more than $1,000 for her charity. Hannah is involved in softball and soccer, and loves to read.
09/06/2007
Maura Weis on Hannah and Friends
With the Irish football season underway, there is no doubt that Charlie Weis is a busy man. But off the field, his family devotes many hours to their charity, Hannah and Friends.
The organization was inspired by Charlie and Maura's 12-year-old daughter, who was born with special needs. Coach Weis and his wife Maura started Hannah and Friends in 2003.
Over the past four years, the charity has blossomed into a major organization, helping hundreds of kids in our area with special needs. NewsCenter 16’s Sarah Platt sat down with Maura Weis to talk about how Hannah and Friends has progressed since the family moved to Michiana in 2004.
08/06/2007
Hannah digs in for her friends
Hannah Weis dipped her shovel into the earth just south of Eggleston School, flipped the dirt off to one side and reveled in the applause.
Then the 12-year-old special needs daughter of Notre Dame football coach Charlie Weis did it again -- and again -- as the flash bulbs popped and the video cameras whirred Saturday morning.
It was supposed to be symbolic, ceremonial, scripted. But in that moment, given the severity of Hannah's global developmental delays, it was magic.
07/28/2007
Coach helps raise money and awareness
Notre Dame football coach Charlie Weis was in Charleston Friday, and no doubt many people expected to hear stories about coaching the Fighting Irish, the four Super Bowl rings he earned as an NFL assistant coach or his days as a University of South Carolina assistant under former head coach Joe Morrison.
But that's not why he came to Charleston.
He came here to talk about his daughter Hannah, one of more than 500,000 people in the United States affected by autism. And he came here to help raise money for Carolina Autism, a Charleston-based nonprofit organization that helps people with the disorder.
07/08/2007
Charlie Weis fights the fight for daughter Hannah
The Notre Dame football coach ventures far and away to raise money for children, like his own, who have special needs.
05/16/2007
A big win for Hannah and Friends
He's used to winning on the football field, but Tuesday Charlie Weis was looking for a victory for an entirely different cause.
The Notre Dame head coach and his wife, Maura made their presentation to the St. Joseph County Council.
04/18/2007
Maura Weis honored at human rights luncheon
Sometimes, Charlie Weis said, the wrong person gives the keynote speech.
"I'm up here because I'm head football coach of the University of Notre Dame," he told nearly 300 people gathered in Century Center for the Human Rights Awareness Day luncheon. "In reality, it should be Maura, because this charity -- it was her idea, it was her passion."
04/18/2007
Weis awed by Zibby's generosity
As Charlie Weis watched his first few snippets of tape as Notre Dame's head football coach more than two years ago, Tom Zbikowski emerged as the poster boy for what Weis was looking for in a football player.
Little did Weis know that the player who personified nasty so well would also turn out to be a man who stood for something so divergent, so, well, un-nasty off the field.
Giving back.
04/09/2007
Board OKs Weis' request for Hannah and Friends project
Originally, Charlie and Maura Weis wanted to build a farm/residential center for special-needs adults in South Carolina.
But donations for Hannah & Friends have been so good here, they're moving their "dream" to Indiana.
On Wednesday, the University of Notre Dame's football coach and his wife received a thumbs-up on the residential center for developmentally disabled adults.
04/01/2007
Weis family focuses on giving back
During the long stretch of nights when Charlie Weis was afraid to go to sleep for fear that he would never wake up, there came a promise.
He would make a difference with his second chance at life.
Months later, in the light of day, when the reality of nearly dying during gastric bypass surgery was diluted by heavy doses of normalcy, the promise remained.
Unbroken. Unabashed. Untouched by the fact that fear was no longer leveraging humility.
Eventually the promise became a dream and then a movement.
Today the miracle isn't that the Notre Dame head football coach co-created the Hannah & Friends charity with wife Maura four years ago, it's that somehow the cause never got stale, the momentum never arrested. In fact, it rolls on with more money, more reach, more ambition than ever before.
04/01/2007
Weises want those with special needs to
find home at Hannah's Farm
Charlie and Maura Weis and Sharon Bui, executive director of Hannah & Friends, share a laugh at the Weis home in Granger while recently discussing plans for a 30-acre residential community designed for adults with special needs.
3/17/07
Charity Starts at Home
Tiffany Simons from NBCsports.com sits down with Charlie Weis and his wife, Maura, to talk about Notre Dame football, Brady Quinn, and the Weises' charity work in the latest edition of Breakfast with Tiffany.
3/06/07
Zbikowski fights for Charity
Tom Zbikowski raised nearly $40,000 for several charities, including one organized by Charlie and Maura Weis, by stepping into the ring.
11/2006 - Present
Hannah and Friends Billboard
Special Thanks to Burkhart Advertising for donating a promotional package of Hannah and Friends billboards strategically located throughout the South Bend/Michiana Area!
11/11/2006
Weis proof that dreams do come true
Charlie Weis really knows how to get into a part.
In only his second year as Notre Dame coach, he has directed magical come-from-behind wins against Michigan State and UCLA.
10/11/2006
Notre Dame Charlie's Charity
Nobody touches Charlie Weis' heart like his 11-year-old daughter, Hannah.
"Some of the things she does make you cry. Then some of the things she does ... you just laugh," the Notre Dame football coach says.
09/09/2006
UND.com and Hannah and Friends partner together for Awareness and Compassion campaign
08/29/2006
ND's first family
The house was supposed to be built in South Carolina, 10 or so years down the road -- whenever Charlie Weis exchanged his Notre Dame playbook for a permanent seat on the living-room sofa.
Plans changed. And the blueprint for his life was redrawn.
08/29/2006
Weises have a game plan for Hannah and Friends
Out of nowhere, Hannah Weis will look at her mother and ask, ''Are you happy?''
Those simple words can trigger tears of joy from Maura Weis.
08/15/2006
Maura Weis has vision for the future
08/02/2006
Giving for a cause
07/25/2006
Kickoff for Charity unites Irish coaches, past and present to raise money for charity
07/24/2006-07/31/2006
Hannah and Friends featured in Sports Ilustrated ad
06/19/2006
Celebrity outing looks to empower Hannah and Friends Organization
06/11/06
Irish eyes smiling again with Weis at the helm
06/04/06
Hannah & Friends lineup has look of the Irish
A pair of recently-retired football greats and a legendary coach are among the newcomers to the Hannah & Friends Celebrity Golf Classic, being played Saturday for the third time at True Blue Plantation.
05/21/06
Heart of the charity
03/14/06
Charlie honored at Autism Speaks
09/25/05
In the Schools...
