The Cleveland Browns are committed to the community. Through First and Ten, the Dawg Pound is encouraged to share what they are doing to give back. Get inspired and check out what these fans are doing to help their community:
How do you give back?
#give10
Name: Dan Naughton
Hometown: Youngstown
How they give back:
Dan is the President of the Youngstown Browns Backers. his club gives back by donating to the Northeast Ohio Chapter of the JDRF. They've donated $3500 in the past and are on pace to donate about $2500 this year. This season he's also donated $185 to a local homeless shelter and $564 to a local high school track team for underprivileged kids to get shoes. The reason they donate to the JDRF is because his eight year old son was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes nearly three years ago. He takes insulin shots at least four times a day, but that doesn't stop him from being an amazing kid. It is an incurable disease that he will have deal with for the rest of his life. Dan also coaches flag football and is a den leader for his other son's Cub Scout Troop.
Name: Ida
Hometown: Westlake, OH
How they give back:
Ida volunteers with First and Ten Community Partner Providence House. She believes the greatest lesson learned through her time there is that every child has a unique story. Even though she is not always aware of their personal history, she does know that what they have experienced greatly impacts their behavior. It has taught her to be more compassionate and understanding. She feels it's her job is to make the children feel safe and nurtured while they are there and hopefully provide them with coping skills that will serve them in the future. Her favorite quote from Margaret Meade hangs on a wall at Providence House – "Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever has." She thinks that all who volunteer or work at Providence House are helping to change the world one child at a time. She considers it an honor and a privilege to be a PH volunteer!
Name: Kathleen Carvin
Hometown: Cleveland Heights, OH
How they give back:
Kathleen first started volunteering back in her college days when she joined Zeta Tau Alpha at Ohio University. She would collect money for the service project muscular dystrophy and have teeter totter marathons. They would take shifts on a teeter totter for 48 hours on a Saturday and Sunday once a year.
Once she graduated, she volunteered with my church and continued with Zeta alumni where they were always incorporating a service project at each meeting. They have collected makeup for the battered women's shelter, toys for Toys for Tots, the Hunger Drive for the Greater Cleveland Food Bank and have raised thousands of dollars for the Cancer Society along with awareness by passing out pink ribbons.
Volunteering makes her feel good. When she was going through a tough time in her life, volunteering helped her feel better about herself. Instead of feeling sorry about herself and her situation, she can go out into the community to pass out food at her church Farmer's market. She believes volunteering adds a greater dimension to her life.
Name: Kathy Hyrb
Hometown: Kenston, OH
How they give back:
Kathy served as a former Coin Toss Captain for the tremendous work that she does in the community. For 22 years, she's given her time to organize and conduct the event of National Girls and Women in Sports Day. It is her hope that through this event young girls discover a positive, active lifestyle. It has been positively associated with a girls' self-esteem and self-confidence. This event impacts approximately 300 girls a year. It also involves the leadership of hundreds of older girls who have already attended this program.
Name: Sherry Langer
Hometown: Mentor, OH
How they give back:
Sherry is a teacher who loves education and seeing the brighter future of youth in her school. She and her students volunteer together to make the community a better place. She organizes different events and drives such as collecting can goods and dry goods for the local Food Bank. She began volunteering as a first year teacher and hasn't looked back since. She thinks it's important to be a role model for the students who she teaches. She tries to give back to the community and those who are less fortunate to live by example. She sometimes volunteers for other organizations and agencies when she can as well.
Interested in signing up your volunteer group for First and Ten? Group forms available! **Click here**_ to learn more about how to #give10_
Follow @BrownsGiveBack on Twitter and Instagram and tell us what you are doing to help others using #give10 to unite us all as Browns fans. Give 10 hours, help your community.
The Browns are dedicated to #give10 through the team's First and Ten initiative. Launched in June 2014, the Cleveland Browns First and Ten campaign is the team's community program, established to inspire fans to volunteer in and help their communities throughout the world by volunteering for 10 hours each year. Since its inception, Browns fans have committed to volunteering more than 2 million hours to impact their communities by pledging to #give10. Through First and Ten, the Browns are the only NFL club to promote a long-term volunteering program that unifies the team and its entire fan base, with the goal of impacting every individual's city across the globe, as well as the franchise's local community. All Browns fans are encouraged to join the volunteering effort by signing the First and Ten pledge on the team's website and by sharing their stories with #give10
