Browns donate $20,000 to local youth

12.30.2005

Through the NFL Junior Community Quarterback Award*, the Cleveland Browns are proud to donate $20,000 to six local youth based initiatives. These programs, which promote volunteerism and betterment in the community, were created by Northeast Ohio youth ranging in age from 13 to 21 years old.

About each program

Team 360 Community Service Project

Through a partnership with the Northeast Ohio Council on Higher Education (NOCHE), Team 360, a group of college students, will design and implement a community service project that can attract volunteer efforts of hundreds of regional freshman-junior level students from fifteen participating campuses.

Links to Learning Golf Training Center

Created by St. Ignatius High School student Austin Davis along with the Arrupe Neighborhood Partnership, Links to Learning is a new project that includes the construction of a small golf center for inner-city children to teach them the basics of golf as well as life skills such as sportsmanship, responsibility, honesty, etc.

Girl Scout Gold Award

Meagan Elizabeth Crowley, through a partnership with United Cerebral Palsy (UCP), has organized a spaghetti benefit dinner to raise money in order to provide therapeutic toys for UCP.

Hispanic Leadership Initiative

Partnered with Esperanza, St. Ignatius High School student Oscar Vazquez Jr. has created the Hispanic Leadership Initiative, which aims to mobilize volunteers to address the need of Hispanic mentors and tutors for elementary and middle students in the inner-city.

Learn to Swim

Scott Hager, along with the American Red Cross of Medina County, created a program that provides swimming lessons to children ages 6 to 12 years from low income and/or minority families in Medina County.

Yard Services for Seniors

Brothers Michael and Bruce Milam, through a partnership with Help Resources, Inc., have created this new start-up project that will provide year-round help to senior citizens with yard work that will include shoveling snow, raking leaves, yard maintenance, etc. - free of charge.

*The NFL Junior Community Quarterback program honors high school and college-aged students who display leadership, dedication, creativity and a commitment to improving the communities in which they live through volunteerism. NFL teams can apply for up to $20,000 in grants to help finance a student-initiated project focusing on community betterment. Students ages 13 to 21 who create a new community improvement project or are working to sustain a project they have already initiated are eligible to apply individually or in groups. The NFL Junior Community Quarterback Award program runs locally in NFL team markets, with winners receiving between $1,000 and $5,000 for their projects.