Catch Her If You Can
Any and all who have made it to the utmost peak of their profession knows the road to greatness is littered with innumerable obstacles.
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Any and all who have made it to the utmost peak of their profession knows the road to greatness is littered with innumerable obstacles. To maneuver your way through, you’ve gotta have sharp wits and an even sharper competitive edge, you need to keep busy eating, breathing and living your life’s passion.
But that comes as no big surprise to actress, model and professional athlete Hannah Cornett.
She tackles all aspects of life with vim and gusto, even the not-so-glamorous parts. Cornett begins her days while most are still fast asleep, hitting the gym from 5 to 7 a.m. before heading to her day job - which can take her anywhere and have her doing just about anything. From Cape Town, South Africa, to New York City and most recently the coasts of Sardinia for the XTERRA Italy off-road triathlon series, Cornett has traveled the globe for her profession.
“I get the ‘What is wrong with you?!’ look all the time,” laughs the energetic 27-year-old, blue eyes sparkling. “It’s hard. But I’m kind of one of those people who goes and tries to get involved with everything.”
Cornett has been on the move from a young age. A self-professed tomboy who was “the only girl on the all-boys soccer team,” she also found interest on the stage, acting in plays in her hometown of Hamilton, Ohio. At 17, Cornett moved to Hawaii when her mom, Nancy, took a job at Waianae Coast Comprehensive Health Center and Queen’s Medical Center.
“She’s my inspiration; I love her to death,” Cornett quickly injects, also giving props to older brother Josh, 30.
But it would be her natural athleticism that would earn her a soccer scholarship to Baldwin-Wallace College, and last year she added the distinction of pro surfer to her list of achievements, a tremendous feat considering she just learned the sport in 2006.
“I go after things 200-and-too-many percent,” Cornett laughs. “I’d go out there six hours a day, morning, noon and night, until I got it. It’s too much, but it’s how I progress, in a way.”
That persistence came in handy when Cornett performed her own stunts for the movie Surfer Dude,in which she starred as “Sam” alongside Matthew McConaughey. Other roles requiring Cornett to take the plunge, literally, have included the Web-series Sports Explorers, in which she travels the world interviewing pioneers in the extreme sporting world. While only airing online right now - check it out at http://sportsexplorers.com - Cornett reveals the show could move to a TV or movie format in the near future.
She’s also been busy working behind the scenes. In addition to hosting Sports Explorers and starring in several other in-the-works TV pilots, Cornett has executive-produced and directed a few episodes.
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But the fast-paced lifestyle can run a person down. So in 2007 Cornett left the hills of Hollywood for the halls of Kapolei Middle School and a new role - that of teaching assistant for a sixth-grade class of autistic children.
“It was a pretty intense process, but it was really, really amazing,” Cornett remembers of her year-anda-half stay at the school. “After I had spent about a year there, I started to have breakthroughs with some of the kids. It really hit home.
“My father had passed away recently, and it kind of opened me up to a side of me that was needing to do something more with my life, to be a little bit more open to providing for someone or being with a cause or a charity, just giving something back.”
Which is precisely why she jumped at the chance to support the charity Tag The World, created by her longtime friend and fellow actor Robert Parks-Valletta. Known for his roles Days of Our Lives, The Young and the Restless, Ugly Betty and True Blood, Parks-Valletta launched TTW in February 2009 during Oscar week as a way to inspire young upand-comers to get involved for a greater good.
“What I wanted to do was really create a way where people could support a cause but at the same time have their own personal story and also have something fashionable that they want to wear. You have the chance to actually wear your story and share that story with others,” explains the 28-year-old Parks-Valletta, revealing the tag and chain he faithfully wears.
His story starts with his younger brother, Thomas, who has DiGeorge syndrome, an incurable disorder that can include cardiac defects, immune system defects and low blood-calcium levels. By the time he was 8, Thomas had already had nine open-heart surgeries.
“He’s a little trooper. He definitely has some fight in him,” Parks-Valletta says of his now 16-year-old brother. “He struggles a little bit in school with certain things, but he’s far beyond where our family thought he’d be now. In fact, he’s one of the reasons why I’m really involved with a lot of foster kids.”
TTW donates 100 percent of profits from the sale of the necklaces to the corresponding cause - Children, Cancer, Animals, Africa or Go Green. The five tags are handcrafted from sterling silver and sport a unique design created by one of the premier jewelers to the stars, Michael Barin. Each tag’s story and affiliate charities can be found at TTW’s official website, www.tagtheworld.com.
In addition to creating what is the hottest charitable cause among young Hollywooders, Parks-Valletta has kept himself quite occupied as well. Upon completing the comedy Frat Party, to be released later this year, he went straight to work on another movie, Paradise, also starring TTW supporter Michael Copon of The Scorpion King and One Tree Hill fame.
Like Cornett, it seems the exotic location and laid-back lifestyle of the Islands have beckoned Parks-Valletta from across the Pacific.
“It’s completely different from L.A., and I love it,” says the San Diego native during an interview at Waikiki Parc Hotel in March. “The people are nicer, the weather’s nice. Two completely different lifestyles.”
Fast-forward four months and Cornett and Parks-Valletta are revving up for the first-ever Tag The World Charity Triathlon Aug 23. Set along the shores of Waikiki, the sprint-distance race consists of a 700-meter swim, 12-mile road bike and 5K run that Cornett says is open to athletes of all skill levels and ages. In fact, a few special athletes are rumored to be hitting the trail.www.active.com
“We’ll be teaming up with 30 foster youths from the nonprofit It Takes An ‘Ohana,” Cornett reveals. She explains that she and Parks-Valletta chose the local charity as the main beneficiary of the race after meeting with execu-
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