Our gala with Andre

Sure, it'd be easy enough for Andre Agassi to pull his tuxedo out of mothballs once a year and smile for photo opps with some of his celebrity pals.

He could shake a few dozen hands, make a brief, chipper speech about the importance of giving back to the community and call it a night.

But no figurehead is the tennis star-turned-philanthropist. The name on the door at the Las Vegas-based Andre Agassi Charitable Foundation is, after all, his own.

And the boss, it seems, isn't one to sit back and watch as hundreds of volunteers orchestrate the foundation's annual "Grand Slam for Children" concert, black tie dinner and silent auction fund-raiser, the fourth installment of which takes place Saturday night at the MGM Grand Garden.

Proceeds from the $800,000 event are donated to more than a dozen local children's charities including: the Boys & Girls Club of Las Vegas; the Nevada Tennis Association; The Inner City Games; and Assistance League of Las Vegas' Operation School Bell program. Approximately $2.8 million was raised at last year's function.

But what exactly is Agassi's role in the star-studded shindig? Simple. Who else could call in a few favors and round up the slew of celebrities who perform at the concert? (Saturday's lineup features Robin Williams, Stevie Nicks, Lionel Richie, Amy Grant and Dennis Miller, among others.)

Then there are the high-dollar, over-the-top auction packages to be compiled. (The auction and dinner are open only to sponsors of the event.) A sampling of this year's offerings includes: walk-on parts on "The Drew Carey Show," "Friends" and "Suddenly Susan" (which stars newlywed Agassi's wife, Brooke Sheilds); a private lunch with Gen. Colin Powell in Washington, D.C.; a weeklong tour of France's wine country; a custom dinner cooked by celebrity chef Emeril Lagasse; and a 10-night New Zealand adventure getaway.

Surprisingly, 28-year-old Agassi's tasks are easier said than done.

"It's just a lot of work, to be honest," he says. "It's a lot of phone calls, a lot of begging." In fact, he contends that it's the most difficult aspect of hosting the event.

Perry Rogers, president of both the Andrew Agassi Charitable Foundation and Agassi Enterprises, agrees. "It's getting the talent so that you have the type of show that meets the standards we have at the foundation.

"The first year out, we really didn't know what we were going to come up with. And we came up with a great event, and each year you try to beat it. It's hard, it really is," Rogers says, pointing to last year's lineup, which featured singers Elton John, Celine Dion and Michael Bolton, comedian Ray Romano and country crooner Clint Black. "And you think, 'OK, how do we top this?' It's a daunting task, no doubt about it."

Though their talents are lent free-of-charge, the celebrities' time is usually not, as Agassi devotes himself to personally repaying the favors throughout the year.

"One of the things I pride myself on is anybody I do ask (to participate), they know they can count on me for anything," he says. "So my work is not just in getting them; my work is definitely in making sure that I take care of the efforts by giving the same efforts towards anything that may be asked of me."

The requests are already rolling in. Immediately following an exhibition tennis match in Belgium in December, Agassi will board the Concorde for a flight to New York, where he'll catch another plane to Chicago to play an exhibition game for one of Elton John's favorite charities.

Rogers explains: "It's not an 'I'll wash your hand, you wash mine' (situation). It's really a function of Elton asked him and he'll do it, even though Elton couldn't play Andre's event this year. Andre wants to be the friend that he is to Elton."

"It's just a lot of years of building relationships with people. Ultimately, that's what it boils down to," Agassi says, explaining how "every auction item that we have, it comes from a long-term kind of give-and-take relationship that we've established over the years."

Not that the stars need much nudging to participate in the gala. "It's wonderful at this stage of the game," he says, "because the event has created so much momentum on its own that people really do have now the belief that the money does make it to the children and that things do get accomplished, so that their efforts and generosities are rewarded with things they can see, with progress made in the community."

A pair of prime examples of that progress are the Andre Agassi Boys & Girls Club, on Martin Luther King Boulevard (which Agassi has visited "a few times"), and the Agassi Center for Education, a $1.1 million state-of-the-art school built at Child Haven, the county's home for abused and neglected children.

"I never (studied in) classrooms this nice," Agassi says jokingly. The facility was built, he explains, "so while these kids are (at Child Haven), they can learn and continue their education and hopefully learn how to make better choices for themselves."

It's also a chance, Rogers says, for Agassi, a Las Vegas native, to return yet another favor -- the one afforded to him at age 13, when he received a scholarship to the Nick Bollettieri Tennis Academy. (His tennis career turned pro three years later.)

"To afford a (school) like that, you certainly need (financial) help, and somebody was willing to do it. ... Somebody had to give that scholarship," Rogers says. "But for that, who knows where Andre would be? But for someone else providing him an opportunity, who knows what he would be?"

"It's so self-motivated," Agassi says of his philanthropic ways. "How do you not get motivated when you see a child's life change? There's really not much more to it."

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