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
To round out Breast Cancer Awareness Month, we'd like to share some stories that were shared from those who are battling, survived and raise awareness about breast cancer.
Name: Kathleen Carvin
Hometown: Cleveland Heights, OH
How they give back: Kathleen started volunteering back in her college days when she joined her sorority Zeta Tau Alpha at Ohio University. They would collect money for their 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 her church and now she continues with Zeta alumni where they always incorporate a service project at their meetings. They have collected makeup for the battered women's shelter, toys for Toys for Tots, the hunger drive for the Cleveland Food Bank and they have raised thousands of dollars for the American Cancer Society along with community awareness by passing out pink ribbons. Volunteering makes her feel good. When she was going through a tough time in her life, volunteering helps make her feel better about herself. Instead of feeling sorry about herself and her situation, she can go out in the community to pass out food at her church's Farmer's market, hear the survival stories from cancer survivors and get a smile from an elderly patient at a nursing home. It adds a greater dimension to her life.
Name: Dakota Camp
Hometown: Cleveland, OH
How they give back: Dakota volunteers with the Cleveland Job Corps. He's a peer mentor on campus helping new students adjust to the center. He also does a lot of volunteering outside of the center and volunteers as a representative of the job corps. He completes a number of walks like Making Strides Against Breast Cancer and other initiatives that allow him to support patients who are battling different illnesses.
Name: Denise M. Hanson
Hometown: Cleveland, OH
How they give back: Denise is a cancer survivor and it's been about four years now. She's always helping people in her community and helping out elders. Giving food to others helping them carry bags into their homes and just talking to them and keeping them company. She has also worked with HandsOnNeo helping those who don't have anywhere to lay their head at night, especially in the cold winter months. This was Denise's second year walking in the MSABC walk. She loves coming back because she loves meeting new people each year.
Name: Monique Ford
Hometown: Cleveland, OH
How they give back: Monique has a unique story in that she's been volunteering with the same organization for nearly 15 years. She enjoys it with every fiber of her being. She supports the women's shelter in Cleveland. She serves the women with their everyday needs and provides counsel for anything they may be encountering. She loves being an ear to listen and just help by being there. Support in any capacity is something that she prides herself on being able to provide.
Name: Laretta Hunter
Hometown: Cleveland, OH
How they give back: Laretta is extremely active. She's a grandmother who does so much in the community everyone she encounters leaves better than they were than before they met. She currently serves on two advisory boards in the city. She works with grandparents at an elderly home and a food pantry. She cooks meals twice a week and every third Saturday which is extremely helpful when they're short-staffed. When there are funerals and other services held at her church, she is also the first one to volunteer to cook and feed those who are grieving. Finally, one of her favorite ways to give back to the community includes her role as a red coat at Playhouse Square.
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 1.5 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
