John Calipari is many things to many people. He’s a basketball coach, a renowned recruiter, a salesman, a mentor, and to some Kentucky basketball fans, a savior.Now he’s being nominated as a humanitarian. Calipari has been nominated for the inaugural 2010 United Nations NGO Positive Peace Awards in the Coach category by Celebrate Positive. The award, viewed as a 21st century peace prize, according to a news release, honors and recognizes individuals, businesses, athletes, sports teams, entertainers and schools around the world for their positive contributions. The 2010 Positive Peace Award nominees are judged by the United Nations NGO Voting Academy comprised of highly respected United Nations NGOs, such as Rotary International, Pathways to Peace and Sister Cities International. The Voting Academy will use an established criteria of a coach’s community involvement and impact on their community to determine this year’s winner.”From day one when John Calipari arrived on our campus, he embraced the Commonwealth,” UK athletics director Mitch Barnhart said. “Everyone that has spent any time with Cal knows he has a heart of gold and both he and his wife Ellen care about children. He helped raise over a million dollars in the Hoops for Haiti telethon and didn’t stop there by involving his team with Samaritan’s feet and their cause after a trip to Haiti. We are extremely proud to have him as a representative of our program.”Calipari was nominated by Samaritan’s Feet where he not only helped deliver shoes in June to orphans in Haiti, but washed the feet of the orphans before putting new shoes on their feet. In August, the two-time Coach of the Year also set an example for his players and staff who joined him in washing the feet of children in need at a shoe distribution in Detroit, followed by leading the kids in basketball drills. “Coach Calipari has used his platform to call attention to the plight of the millions of children around the world who suffer from infection, disease and even death due to a lack of proper footwear”, said Todd Melloch, director of marketing for Samaritan’s Feet. The winner of the sports categories for 2010 United Nations NGO Positive Peace Award will be announced in mid-December.