The Redskins Blog

WRCF Offers $25,000 College Scholarship

LOUDOUN COUNTY, Va. – The Washington Redskins Charitable Foundation (WRCF) announced today that online submission is now open for the WRCF $25,000 college scholarship. The 2013 scholarship marks the fifth consecutive year in which the Redskins are helping send a student in need to college.

Administered by the D.C. College Success Foundation (CSF), the WRCF scholarship will provide one local, deserving, high-potential and low-income public high school senior with a college scholarship that will be disbursed in up to $5,000 increments annually for five years.

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Wilson Dances To Help Fight Obesity

Earlier today, CB Josh Wilson represented the Washington Redskins Charitable Foundation by participating in National Health Through Fitness Day in Washington, D.C. as part of Capitol Hill’s campaign to “Get America Moving to Improve Health”.

The program’s goal is to help overcome America’s obesity crisis which falls in line with the Redskins Charitable Foundation’s commitment to health and wellness through the NFL’s Play 60 initiative.

There was much anticipation for Josh’s arrival and the students wasted no time challenging him to a game of Dance Dance Revolution.

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Redskins Read Book Drive Sunday

Sunday’s game against the Cincinnati Bengals is much more than the Redskins’ 2012 home opener.

It’s also the kick off to a great annual event that promotes childhood literacy.

The Washington Redskins Charitable Foundation, Everybody Wins! DC and Barnes & Noble Booksellers are teaming up to play host to the fifth annual Redskins Read Children’s Book Drive, which will kick off with a stadium collection Sunday at FedExField.

Participating is super easy and well worth your time.

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Help Area Children With Backpack Drive

Redskins players Jarvis Jenkins (top left), Alfred Morris (top right) and Rex Grossman (bottom) have their supplies ready for Operation Backpack 2012. Do you?

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Want to join Redskins players like running back Alfred Morris in a drive aimed at helping area homeless children achieve in school?

Who wouldn’t?

This effort, Operation Backpack 2012, is a combined effort by the Washington Redskins Charitable Foundation and Volunteers of America Chesapeake that collects and distributes the backpacks filled with school supplies to children living in Volunteers of America Chesapeake homeless shelters throughout the Washington D.C. metro area.

Donating to the cause is easy.

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Players Out This Weekend, And Other Clips

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The gap between the start of free agency and the draft can be one of the longest of the NFL calendar year, but this is a good weekend for your Redskins fix.  Lots of players will be out and about in the community this weekend, and you can catch some of them at the following events:

Anthony Armstrong is hosting a Celebrity All-Star basketball game tonight at 7:30 p.m. at Stafford High School. (Address: 33 Stafford Indian Lane, Fredericksburg, VA 22405).   Redskins and Ravens fans will be treated to a jointly-hosted event by Armstrong and Maryland grad Torrey Smith in Fredericksburg, Va.  This is the second annual “Ravens vs. Redskins themed Celebrity Basketball Game,” and brings great football players together for a great cause.  Proceeds to benefit Armstrong’s Lucky13 Charitable Foundation.

(via Mike Jones, Washington Post): Collectors’ Showcase of America sports memorabilia show Saturday at the Dulles Expo Center. (Address: 4320 Chantilly Center, Chantilly, Virginia 20151).  Redskins players Lorenzo Alexander, Roy Helu, Evan Royster and Darrel Young, along with former Redskins Dexter Manley, Ravin Caldwell, Maxie Baughan, Darryl Grant, Keith Griffin, Roy Jefferson, Bob Kuziel, Paul Laaveg, Walt Rock, Lonnie Sanders, as well as former defensive coordinator Richie Petitbon and former general manager Charley Casserly are expected to be in attendance.

(via Susan Jenkins, Crofton Patch): Meet Josh Wilson at the new Dick’s Sporting Goods store in Waugh Chapel Towne Centre.   (Address: 1417 South Main Chapel Way, Crofton Md.)  The store will give out wristbands starting at 8 a.m. Saturday, Wilson will be at the store from 1-3 p.m. The store will also give away Columbia T-shirts while supplies last.

Pres. Bill Clinton’s fifth annual Clinton Global Initiative University (CGI U) meeting in Washington, D.C. Anthony Armstrong, Joshua Morgan, and former Redskins receiver Donte’ Stallworth are expected to be in attendance.  The events brings together more than 1,000 students, representing all 50 states, more than 75 countries, and approximately 300 college and universities, along with leaders in business, nonprofit, government and celebrities engaged in efforts to create positive change.

In other news, a slow week at Redskins Park means that it was a busy week for players with their families.  Here are a few of the pictures that players shared of their families on Twitter: Read more »

Charitable Foundation Scholar Succeeding

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Last May, Yasmine Arrington, a senior at Benjamin Banneker High School, was in the middle of one of the last math tests that she would take in high school, when she was paged to the office.  Certain that she had heard the announcement wrong, and focused on the test, she tried to concentrate on the problem on the paper.

Then she was paged again.  And again.  So she stood up and walked down to the office.

When she arrived, she was greeted by an office official, who told her: “You’re in big trouble, Missy.”

“I was so scared,” she remembered, with a laugh.  ”I just wanted to graduate on time.”

She continued into the office to the Guidance Suite, where the counselors were all gathered around a desk.  Her principal handed her the phone, and on the other end of the line was Redskins owner, Daniel M. Snyder.

That “trouble” that she was told she was in was Snyder congratulating her for being the recipient of the Washington Redskins Charitable Foundation’s $25,000 scholarship. Read more »

‘Toys For Tots’ Seeking Donations, Sunday

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The Washington Redskins Charitable Foundation and the U.S Marine Corps will reach thousands of underserved children and teens this holiday season as they join forces for Touchdown for Tots, a national toy drive benefiting the Toys for Tots Foundation.

Fans are encouraged to bring new, unwrapped toys for children and teens to Sunday’s game between the Redskins and Patriots on Sunday, Dec. 11. Local Marines will be stationed at all stadium gates and suites entrances with collection bins to collect toys to distribute to children and teens in need throughout the D.C. Metro Area this holiday season.

In case you can’t make it out to the game this Sunday, there are still a number of ways to join with the Redskins in the spirit of giving:

1. Donate at any Official Washington Redskins Store

Now through December 18th, visit any official Redskins store location or the Redskins store website to make a tax-deductible donation to Toys for Tots. Your donation will be added to merchandise total. Every $10 donated will put a new toy in the hands of deserving children in the DC metro area this holiday season. Fans can also bring a new, unwrapped toy and drop off at collection bins at each store location.

2. Donate online

Visit the Redskins’ Toys for Tots Foundation website and make a donation.  Donated funds made to the Redskins page will benefit local children this holiday season.

Support the Redskins Touchdown for Tots Campaign by visiting www.toysfortots.org/touchdown and click the Redskins logo to donate in our area.

Come Check Out The Redskins Rides

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Tired of seeing nothing but bland sedans on the road in the DMV?  Come out to Redskins Park on Saturday and check out the players’ rides and awesome fan cars.

The Washington Redskins will host the fourth annual Redskins Rides Car Show presented by Easterns Automotive on Saturday, Oct. 8 from noon–6 p.m. at Redskins Park in Ashburn, Va.

The event features classic, custom and exotic cars, as well as the rides of several Redskins’ players. Proceeds from Redskins Rides will benefit the Easterns Community Care Foundation and the Washington Redskins Charitable Foundation.

For more information on the Redskins Ride Car Show, visit Redskins Rides.

WHO: Redskins’ Fans and Car Enthusiasts

WHAT: Redskins Rides Car Show Presented by Easterns Automotive

WHEN: Saturday, Oct. 8: Noon–6 p.m. ET

WHERE: Redskins Park, Ashburn Va.

Redskins And Charities In April 2011

Three quick notes about upcoming events involving Redskins and/or charities and/or the Redskins Charitable Foundation.

• On April 3, Reed Doughty is participating in the National Kidney Foundation Kidney Walk; you can sign up to support his walk team (and join the walk) here. It’s a cause that has tremendous personal resonance for Doughty, as his son Micah was born with kidney disease. As Doughty writes on the Walk website, “The first months of Micah’s life consisted of medications, daily dialysis for almost a year, and trips to the emergency room. Finally, when Micah was 18 months old, he was ready for a kidney transplant. [Doughty's wife] Katie donated one of her kidneys to him.” Things are going well for Micah and family now, but it’s easy to understand why Doughty so strongly supports this charity.
• April 8 is the deadline for high-potential, low-income high school students in D.C. and Prince George’s County to apply for the Redskins Charitable Foundation’s $25,000 scholarship. You can find the eligibility details and application here, and it’s also worth taking a look back at the story of last year’s winner, future bilingual pediatrician Kiana Hardy.
• And Saturday April 23 is Lorenzo Alexander and Kedric Golston‘s second annual Ride To Provide in Reston, Virginia, which raises money for Alexander’s ACES Foundation as well as orphaned babies, poverty-stricken women and children in Africa. Last year’s inaugural event was excellent, and I see no reason to imagine that this year should be any different.

They’re all worthy causes, and I hope you’ll be able to help support them.
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The Third Annual All-Star Survivors Luncheon At Redskins Park

Today marks the third annual All-Star Survivors luncheon at Redskins Park, an event at which women currently battling breast cancer are celebrated by Redskins players, coaches, and wives; given a chance to support one another; and pampered with a selection of products chosen to make some of the less obvious aspects of their battle a little bit more pleasant.

It’s Roxi McNabb’s first such luncheon, of course, but it’s not a type of event that’s unfamiliar to her. “I think you’ll find within the NFL that you have a lot of people within organizations who do have stories,” McNabb says, “and who do want to reach out to people and help, so I think that from that perspective it’s commonplace.”

The Redskins event is hosted by two couples who do, as McNabb suggests, have stories: Emma and Derrick Dockery and Christy and Chris Cooley. Emma Dockery lost her mother to cancer four years ago, and Chris Cooley’s mother Nancy is a survivor of breast cancer. It was Nancy Cooley’s battle that inspired the first incarnation of this event two years ago.

“I remember her coming over to my house, and her hair had started falling out enough that you could notice,” Cooley explained today. “And she asked me if I would buzz her hair. And that was really — I mean, it was emotional. After that and chemo, her appearance drastically started to change. And it’s hard because her spirit’s still there and she was fighting, but you look at yourself in the mirror and you look sick.

“So I got together with the Redskins Charitable Foundation and put together an event that we could do,” Cooley continued, “and I kinda just thought about some of the things that my mom was going through. She needed a wig, or at least the opportunity to look at different wigs; obviously makeup, and jeans, and stuff like that.”

The inspiration was the cosmetic aspect, but, Cooley says, it turned into even more. “I donated money to buy all the stuff, and all these ladies came and I think more than them getting the different items, what was special was that they got to spend all that time together. I think that they really enjoyed it.”

Emma Dockery saw much the same thing after becoming involved with the event last year. “I think we found last year that, when we talked to the women after the fact, the biggest thing they felt was the love and the support,” she says. “And I think that aside from all the things that you get, there’s nothing like the human interaction.”
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