Currently averaging 12 points and 9 rebounds per game, Faried has been a key member of the Denver Nuggets who sit in 5^th place in the Western Conference. The Nuggets have one of the best home records in the NBA, which has helped play a part in the rapid growth of Faried’s fan base. As much as he has helped the Nuggets on the court, the efforts that he continues to put forth off the court have played a huge role as well. He has helped make a difference in the Denver community and is slowly starting to make a difference across the country, and hopefully worldwide sometime soon.

As a proud son of two lesbian moms, Faried stood up in January to support gay marriage equality with a PSA geared toward legislation in Colorado. As part of this, Faried has joined Athlete Ally, a non-profit organization dedicated to encouraging athletes, coaches, parents, fans and other members of the sports community to respect individuals involved in sports, regardless of perceived or actual sexual-orientation or gender identity or expression. With someone like Faried jumping on board to support this cause, it is clear that sports culture is shifting towards inclusion.

“Becoming an Athlete Ally gives me the opportunity to spread a message of inclusiveness throughout the NBA and our country. I have two moms and I love them both very much. I respect, honor and support them in every way. The bond I have with them has made me realize that I want all members of the LGBT community – whether they are parents, players, coaches or fans – to feel welcome in the NBA and in all of our communities,” Faried said in a press release.

As an Athlete Ally, Faired now joins Baltimore Raven and Super Bowl Champion Brendon Ayanbadejo; Chris Kluwe of the Minnesota Vikings, who was very vocal this year through blog posts, interviews and tweets; Scott Fujita of the Cleveland Browns; Connor Barwin of the Houston Texans; Australian rugby star David Pocock; Australian rules football player Brock McLean; and plenty of college athletes who have already signed on.

Faried will act as a liaison between the organization and the NBA, help promote Athlete Ally’s mission to end homophobia in sports by speaking out to his team, league and fan base, and encourage his colleagues to join in the effort.

The announcement comes as an extension of Athlete Ally’s ongoing relationship with the NBA. In August, the organization worked in partnership with the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) to deliver a pioneering LGBT awareness training to the 2012 NBA rookies, which included a young Faried.

This is definitely just the beginning, but with more and more athletes speaking up each year there is no doubt that someday in the near future all of this will be a problem of the past.

For more information on Athlete Ally, visit http://www.athleteally.com/

“From a very, very young age, my mom and one of my aunts always worked with low-income families and high crime rate communities,” mentioned the Coronado, California native. “They would give them anything from food to clothing and spent time with the kids, so my earliest memory of giving back would have to be when I was about 10-years-old helping them with that.”

As someone who comes from a family that stresses the importance of helping others, the Sounders FC midfielder ended up with an organization that stresses the same thing amongst their players. Always doing something to give back to the community or finding a way to say thank you to their fans, the Sounders are one of the tops teams in the MLS when it comes to showing appreciation in the community.

“I think it’s incredible what the Sounders do. The outreach program here is amazing,” said Carrasco. “They provide us with great opportunities to help the community through organizations like the Boys and Girls Club.”

“The guys have been incredible when it comes to being positive role models for the kids and they take advantage of the opportunities they get presented with.”

Servando Carrasco was named the MLS W.O.R.K.S. Humanitarian of the Month for October for the work that he did in the community to raise awareness towards breast cancer; something that has hit him personally. Servando’s mother Gloria was given a clean bill of health after her five-year checkup in November, after being diagnosed with breast cancer during his time at the University of California-Berkley.

Although Servando has been working with the Susan G. Komen Foundation since his rookie season last year, he wanted to get approval from his mother first before he brought attention to her fight.

“They asked me if I wanted to do something and of course my first reaction was to ask my mom to see if she wanted to do something with the Susan G. Komen Foundation, and after she gave me the green light it was an incredible experience,” described Carrasco.

“To have her up here and take part in the race, it was very emotional and I’m very thankful for the organization for giving me the opportunity to be a part of it and give back to others who are going through what my mother went through.”

The members of the Sounders do a lot in the community. In fact, with Carrasco being named the Humanitarian of the Month for October he became the fifth different Sounders player to earn the honors, the most of any team in Major League Soccer since they started presenting the award in 2010. Despite being the ones that go out into the community day after day, Carrasco and the Sounders players credit the director of community outreach, Sandy Gregory, for helping the team to contribute to the Seattle community.

“Working with the Susan G. Komen Foundation is something that came out of nothing to be honest,” said Carrasco. “Sandy, the director of the outreach program with the Sounders, came up to me and asked me if I wanted to be a part of it because she knew that my mom was a survivor of breast cancer,” he continued.

“I definitely wanted to be a part of it, but I wanted to make sure my mom was ok with it because it is her story and she is the one who went through the battle. As soon as she told me yes, we went forward with it and were involved in a lot of the planning and the event in general and it was an amazing event and I’m glad we did it as a family and that Sandy gave me the opportunity to be a part of it.”

With the help of Carrasco’s 82-member team that raised over $6,300, a total surpassing $1.1 million was raised towards breast cancer awareness and research at the 2012 event in Seattle.

Aside from working in the community to help raise awareness for breast cancer, Carrasco has also appeared at several of the club’s summer camps and has worked regularly in the United We Serve program.

“For me, I feel like we have a responsibility given the position that we are in and we can help encourage these kids to make the right decisions and stay on the right path and stay in school,” said the 24-year-old. “I love getting involved with the kids and going to the Boys and Girls Club and spending the day there, whether it be helping them with their homework or playing dodgeball with them like we did last time,” he chuckled.

“To give them that attention that they might not get in their household really makes a difference and goes a long way. The kids are the future so if we can make a positive impact right now I think that it can go a long way for them in the long run.”

Working in the community with the children is something that the veterans in the MLS have taught the rookies since the beginning. James Riley, currently playing for Chivas USA, was a member of the Sounders from 2009 until 2011. He was very active within the community and taught his teammates how to be a pro both on and off the field. Carrasco believes that Riley played a major role on the team when it comes to getting them out into the community and helping children and it’s something that they continue to do, even though Riley is no longer with the team.

“He [James Riley] really opened up the door for future players to get involved with the Boys and Girls Club and I think that it is something that a lot of guys have taken advantage of to help make an impact on these kids’ lives. Even if it’s just an hour that we get to spend with them, guys are always jumping on the opportunity of helping out and spending time with the kids.”

Servando has also been involved in the Sounders FC’s Hispanic outreach since joining the club in the second round of the 2011 MLS SuperDraft. He spent his childhood living in Tijuana, Mexico, where he learned to develop his soccer skills to become the player that he is today. After spending his childhood there, Carrasco hopes to one day go back to his former hometown to give back to the children who need and deserve the help.

“In the future I want to do something with soccer in Tijuana. I want to give something back to where I came from. I want there to be a place for youth to play soccer and develop their personal skills on and off the field, that’s my vision,” explained Carrasco.

“I know it’s going to take a long time, but I know in maybe 10 or 15 years I definitely would like to use my time to develop a soccer program that will help them develop skills, not just in the aspect of playing, but the life lessons that can be learned as well through the game of soccer and I just hope to one day have the resources to accomplish that someday,” he elucidated.

Servando continues to serve the Seattle community as much as he can. At the young age of 24 and just two seasons into his professional career, there’s no telling what he will be able to accomplish in years to come.

To learn more about the Susan G. Komen Foundation, visit http://ww5.komen.org/

To learn more about the Boys & Girls Club of America, visit http://www.bgca.org/Pages/index.aspx

To learn more about United We Serve, visit http://www.serve.gov/

To learn more about MLS W.O.R.K.S., visit http://www.mlssoccer.com/mlsworks

Druce would go on to play in 531 NHL games and officially retired from professional hockey in 2000. He would continue to be involved in the game as a hockey analyst with Sportsnet until 2004, when he left to be with his daughter who was diagnosed with leukemia. This unfortunate turn of events inspired John to join her in her battle to fight the disease, which affects millions of people. In January 2005, Druce, alongside members of the Peterborough Police Department worked together in association with Cops for Cancer to start Pedal For Hope in benefit of the Canadian Cancer Society.

“The concept of Pedal For Hope is that we ride through and visit 50 schools every spring for just over a three weeks. We go into the schools and do an hour-long presentation and we show a DVD, which includes many celebrities such as Ron McLean, Don Cherry, Carrie Underwood, Mike Fisher, Jason Spezza, and many others,” said Druce.

“We talk about why we’re there and what our goals are. We have ice cream eating contests, put skits on for the kids, get them involved by participating in different things and the kids really enjoy it and from what I hear it’s the highlight of the year when we come into the schools,” he elucidated.

“Usually we’ll do 3-4 schools a day. We’ll ride to the schools we go to everyday then we’ll load up our trailer, drive home, and then start the next day where we left off so we don’t miss any kilometers,” continued the Peterborough, Ontario native.

“We’ve rode through rain, snow, and terrible winds, all of the conditions. It’s challenging sometimes, but the smile on these kids’ faces always makes it worthwhile.”

The Pedal for Hope project is supported by so many people in the Peterborough community and with the help of sponsors, such as Shimano Canada who constantly donates various bike components and connects the riders with essential equipment; Druce and the police officers involved are able to achieve their goals year after year.

They also include those in the community who are battling cancer to join the riders as they conclude their mission and celebrate the progress made each year.

“There are about 30-35 kids in the area that are what we call ‘friends whom we ride for’. I ride for my daughter and another young fellow named Jack Prins. At the end of every year on the last day of our ride we join up with all the kids and ride with them for the last kilometer to our final spot. Canadian Tire has also been so gracious to donate bikes to the kids who may not have one which is an added bonus,” said John.

“It’s kind of like a grand finale for the ride. Unfortunately we’ve lost some kids, but thankfully the research that’s going on now has really worked and there’s a larger chance for kids to survive,” he added.

“Another event that we also do is something called the Battle in the Saddle, so every February or March we’ll have a cycling competition in a local mall. We have teams sign up, 10 people per team, and we cycle for 24 hours. Everybody takes turns and it’s a great way for us to raise extra money, so we’ve done that for about four years now.”

It is beyond clear that Pedal for Hope has made a positive and noticeable impact on the Peterborough community and for cancer patients nationwide. For that, their selfless work has not gone unnoticed as they have received numerous honours and notable mentions, including a visit to Parliament Hill where Prime Minister Stephen Harper honoured them. Druce alone has also received acknowledgement as he was made an Honourary Police officer by the city of Peterborough.

“It’s an honorary position so I don’t have a badge or anything like that but I guess a couple of the team members went to the Chief in Peterborough and said I was one of them. I think it has only been done one other time in Ontario, I didn’t even know they did that,” says Druce. “It was really a shock for me, but such an honour. We’ve also been honoured by the OPP and various other organizations. The support has been overwhelming from everybody,” Druce proceeded.

“This project has really become such a big part of my life, all the guys and everything associated just means so much to me. The police officers on Pedal For Hope take three weeks off for this and take their own personal time to do this, so it’s a huge commitment and truly makes it something special. I always tell everybody that this is the best team I’ve ever played for, not only because of what we do, but because of who I do it with.”

Washington Capitals fans will always remember John Druce as a playoff hero who stepped up and provided hope for a team who had lost their highest goal scorer. To the people of Peterborough and for the millions who suffer from cancer he is a hero who has stepped up and provided hope for those who have lost hope in their own lives. For many, he and the men who cycle every spring are regarded as guardian angels, role models and inspiration that if we continue to work together we WILL beat cancer.

John’s daughter, who was diagnosed with leukemia eight years ago, is now healthy and living her normal life.

“My daughter’s doing great. She’s been in remission for four years now. She went through cancer three times so she went through her treatment the first time. She had chemo and went through remission for two years, then relapsed and had a bone marrow transplant and was in remission for two years, and then relapsed again, and then had another bone marrow transplant and she’s been four years clean now,” explained Druce.

“She was diagnosed when she was 15-years-old and now she’s 24. It was hell. I never want to see anybody go through that ever again, but it happens and it’s out there and it’s why we do what we do.”

To learn more about Pedal For Hope, visit http://www.pedalforhope.com/

To learn more about Cops for Cancer and the Canadian Cancer Society, please visit http://www.cancer.ca/

Spending time throughout his career with the California Golden Seals, Cleveland Barons, Minnesota North Stars and Washington Capitals, Maruk finished his career with 878 points (356 goals, 522 assists) in 888 games, and hit the 50 and 60 goal plateau one time each in his career while playing with the Capitals. He still holds the Capitals record for most points in a season, when he finished with 136 (60 goals, 70 assists) in the 1981-82 season.

While he was in the NHL, Maruk took advantage of any opportunity that came his way to work with a charity. Whether it was a community event or a visit to the local hospital, he was always up for putting a smile on the children’s faces.

“Players wanted to do charity work as much as the teams wanted them to do it when they were playing for them,” said the Etobicoke, Ontario native. “We did a lot of different events and each player was committed to do at least 6-10 events throughout the year and then whatever else we wanted to do, it was up to us. In Minnesota we won a couple of community awards through the team because we did so much off the ice,” he added.

Although he and his teammates were heavily involved in helping out around the community during his playing days, he believes that the players should have the choice to help out or not because of their hectic schedules, but leans towards them helping out at least one charity or within the community and believes that the teams should have their players stay active throughout the season.

“I think it’s both options when it comes to giving back. There’s a lot of pressure put on the athletes to do their job, but I feel there’s another part where the athletes giving back should be a must and I believe that players should be involved in so many events throughout the season,” he elucidated.

“I know a lot of them are involved in certain charities themselves, whether it be SickKids or something for cancer, they get involved and direct a lot of their attention to these charities and give a lot of their time to these charities.”

He has never taken anything he has for granted and understands how lucky he is to have had the opportunity to live the life that every young hockey player dreams about living.

“We’re fortunate to have a pretty good career and a pretty good lifestyle so to give back to a child who is suffering from a disability or disease, it just feels good to give back to them and help put a smile on their face,” he stated. “We have people out here enjoying the life and not realizing how hard it really is to go through what these children are going through.”

One of the charities that Maruk has been heavily active with since moving back to Toronto four years ago is the Baycrest Foundation; a Foundation that focuses on slowing down Alzheimer’s Disease and whose mission is to enrich the quality of life in the community by supporting programs and services that promote excellence in care, research, and education in the field of aging.

“They raise over $2 million a year and the event we have in May consists of about 60 NHL Alumni players and we have a weekend full of hockey and people raise a lot of money for it,” described Maruk.

Maruk is also heavily involved with the NHL Alumni and their events, as well as the Special Olympics and SickKids. He enjoys helping out within the community and playing a part in brightening up a child’s day that may not be as lucky as most children their age.

“The greatest thing is the satisfaction of it,” stated the 21^st overall pick in the 1975 NHL Draft. “We’re very fortunate to have certain things. These children are just like us, even though they have a disability, they just want to live life like the rest of us.”

Just like his playing days, Maruk doesn’t plan on slowing down anytime soon. He continues to do whatever he can in the community and even runs his very own hockey camp just outside Huntsville, Ontario. He takes advantage of every opportunity that is thrown his way, just like he did while he was on the ice every night. He may have been one of the smaller guys on the ice, but he definitely had one of the biggest hearts and he continues to prove it.

To learn more about the Baycrest Foundation, visit http://www.baycrest.org/foundation.php

To learn more about the SickKids Foundation, visit http://www.sickkidsfoundation.com/home/

To learn more about the Special Olympics, visit http://www.baycrest.org/foundation.php

American sprinter and 2008 Olympic gold medalist Mary Wineberg is a hero for reasons far beyond her gold medal and many successes on the track. She is a sincere, active role model in her community and gives countless hours to improving lives of so many children in her hometown of Cincinnati, Ohio. Involved in programs such as Girls on the Run, as well as assisting at the University of Cincinnati and constant visits to children’s hospitals, Mary Wineberg is a perfect example of a true Olympic hero, something she has always strived to be.

“When I was in college we had a lot of different volunteer opportunities that the student athletes could do, so I just made sure that I was always involved in that. Giving back to organizations such as Habitat for Humanity and going to the different schools and speaking as a student and an athlete to all of the children just giving them hope of different things they can do when they get older and grow up,” Wineberg explained.

“Before I really got into my track career I used to be a teacher and I worked with inner city children. I thought that there was just a really large need for those particular individuals and children to just see a mentor and see someone doing something positive because those kids had a lot of issues in terms of the inner city with going to jail, stealing, selling drugs and things like that, so I’m a big advocate for children and really working with the children,” she said.

As she became fully involved with track and her career, Wineberg continued to serve children of the community and has been a constant supporter and familiar face with Girls on the Run where she teaches, motivates and encourages young girls to stay active and follow their dreams.

“I think I bring so much energy into the program that the girls just get super excited and I think that it helps that it’s a running event. The girls run 3 km so it’s a long distance race that they run. I’m a sprinter but I don’t mind cheering them on, it just brings tears to my eyes to see girls who have never done anything like this before and they train all year for this race and they are literally crying as they’re crossing the line and if I see someone that needs some motivation I’ll jump in the race and encourage them,” Mary elucidated.

“I’m a big advocate for Girls on the Run just to get girls to see that they can be empowered and that they can do something with themselves and that they don’t have to be ashamed of running and being out there trying to be like the boys,” she added.

Mary also helps out at her former school, the University of Cincinnati, and provides mentorship for the young athletes trying to juggle education, sports and their social lives. One way she teaches the young student athletes is having them attend the Girls on the Run events.

“I bring the students into the mix and I think it helps out too because these young girls at the event are able to see these young college girls really help out by painting faces, they help me with the stretches, we dance with the girls and really get them pumped up for the race, so I think it’s exciting for the girls I work with at UC to also give back and see that I’m giving back there and hopefully make it a tradition that gets passed on,” said Mary.

Alongside mentoring other young athletes and girls to be active within running, Mary also makes continual visits to children’s hospitals and runs after school programs once a month in which she speaks with the children about having goals and doing your best to reach your goals, regardless of what those around you think or say.

“It’s all about the youth actually writing goals down and trying to achieve them instead of just settling. I was always taught that you always go after whatever you want to do or be in life instead of listening to someone tell you what you can’t do,” Wineberg said.

“I’ll be doing some things at children’s hospital again and I enjoy doing that because you have these children who are sick with cancer or any other issues and they’re excited, they are happy, they have smiles on their faces and if they don’t, once they see the gold medal or see me then they start to smile and that really brings a tear to my eye,” explained Mary. “I could never complain about anything because if I were in their shoes what would I do? I’m so thankful for the opportunity to be helping and if I wasn’t and I was in their shoes I would want someone to do the same for me.”

Mary doesn’t plan on slowing down on the track or in the community and will continue to do so because in her words, “An Olympian isn’t just someone that walks around with a medal, it’s someone that actually does something in the community and can be looked up to.”

For more information on Mary Wineberg, visit http://marywineberg.com/

For more information on Girls on the Run, visit http://www.girlsontherun.org/

The United Athletes Foundation was established in 2008 with the hopes of improving the lives of both athletes and society in it’s entirety. With over 90 professional athletes from the NBA, WNBA, NFL, MLB and professional boxing involved, the United Athletes Foundation supports various causes in various parts of the world that assist and better many communities.

“Our overall goal in what we we’re trying to accomplish with the organization was basically uniting athletes around the world for the benefit of communities,” said Reggie.

“Rather than pick one cause to just go behind, we thought it was more important to put our organization in a position where it became an empowerment organization to basically put individual athletes into positions where they can become ambassadors of their cities and ambassadors of their causes, so that was the real vision of why we formed United Athletes Foundation, to simply unite athletes across the world,” he explained.

The United Athletes Foundation operates on three different levels of empowerment, which contribute to the stability of both athletes and the community. The Foundation hosts a number of financial literacy symposiums and programs across the United States to inform and educate athletes about the world of philanthropy and the importance of understanding all financial aspects of their personal lives, as well as their foundations and causes.

“We kept hearing the criticisms about athletes not really giving back and we knew that wasn’t a true statement, we knew athletes did care about giving back and we knew they did care about the community,” elucidated the former Memphis Tiger.

“The alarming statistics we saw were of NFL players and NBA players going bankrupt, unemployed and divorced very quickly after retirement. Whether it was after two years after being retired from the NFL or five years after being retired from the NBA, it just was an alarming statistic and because of that fact it was also causing their non-profits to go out of business because that one individual mainly funded them,” he continued.

“Once their income or financial situation started to deteriorate, so did the community effort they were trying to accomplish in their specific city. That’s where we really saw the value of bringing ourselves together and becoming an informational organization and more about empowering these individuals. We are behind the scenes helping them help their community.”

Aside from teaching athletes the importance of financial literacy, the Foundation is also heavily involved in promoting and expanding various foundations and programs into larger markets in larger communities to assist more people. Through strategic partnerships with athlete members of their organization and assisting in fundraising efforts and events, the UAF helps raise awareness and the effectiveness and efficiency of each program.

The United Athletes Foundation is also heavily involved with children’s relief and has partnerships with both St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital and the Gates Millennium Scholars Program.

“We’ve been focused on St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital by helping them create more awareness and help push their cause to the community. We also work with the Gates Millennium Scholars Program, which is the 10-year scholarship program that’s administered by the United Negro College Fund,” explained the President and Executive Director of the United Athletes Foundation.

“With what we’ve been doing with financial literacy it kind of got us in a position where one of our financial literacy partners introduced us to a company that was doing housing rehab so we announced in New York that we’ll be partnering with another organization in partnership with our financial literacy partner to do rehab work in Atlanta, Baltimore and New Orleans,” added the Memphis, Tennessee native.

The United Athletes Foundation is one of a kind and gives numerous athletes the ability to give back to their communities in support of any cause they hope to support. Names like Julius Erving, Hank Aaron and music mogul Russell Simmons, are all involved with the Foundation and have created positive impacts on many others. Many athletes and individuals in the spotlight are misunderstood and can be easily taken advantage of. The ideals of Reggie Howard, Ray Lewis and many others, have given these athletes the chance to give back while gaining the proper knowledge and skill set to do so.

“I think there needs to be a source guys can go to and feel comfortable and just know there’s an organization that truly cares about athletes helping athletes. There’s no conflict with our organization being run by another company or anything from that standpoint,” says the former Carolina Panther. “We’re a freestanding organization that truly has the goal of helping these athletes accomplish what they want to do in their community.”

“You want to train the people that have the best opportunity to help others and if we can help the youth as early as possible so we don’t have to go through a brainwashing process or educating them after they’ve lost everything, the real goal is catching them before they get the opportunity to come into substantial wealth so we can give them a blue print and pattern of understanding how to get the goal done the right way,” concluded Howard.

To learn more about the United Athletes Foundation, visit http://www.unitedathletesfoundation.org/

“My first year of pro hockey, we [Wilkes-Barre/Scranton] were new so we did a lot of charity work like practices with kids, hospital visits and work with local charities” said Kostopoulos.

“I didn’t really see how much it helped when I was younger, but as I got older I saw how much it helped the kids so I did more and more.”

Having played many seasons in both the AHL and the NHL, the Mississauga, Ontario native has done it all off the ice in more than one city and he doesn’t plan on slowing down any time soon. Although he has helped out in many different communities over the years, Kostopoulos says there is one city that he feels he made a really big difference in because of how the team and players are portrayed throughout the city.

“Every team tries to do as much as they can for different charities and things like that but I think in Montreal, because the hockey players are so highly respected and looked at almost like super heroes, doing things in Montreal with the kids was pretty amazing,” explained Kostopoulous.

“In other cities that I’ve played in, the kids are very happy to see you, but in Montreal when you walk in to their hospital room, they are just in complete awe and they really appreciate what you’re doing for them.”

This past season, Kostopoulos took giving back to a whole new level, as he became the spokesperson for the Calgary Chapter of the Canadian Celiac Association. As the spokesperson for the CCA, he helped raise awareness and became a voice for people who are adversely affected by gluten. Throughout the season, Kostopoulos donated $100 per goal that he scored during the regular season, as well as tickets to the program’s youth. After each game, the guests were invited into the Flames’ locker room where they got to meet Tom and other members of the Calgary Flames.

“My wife and I wanted to work with kids so we did a lot of events with the CCA,” he mentioned.

“I thought that talking to the kids, I was going to help them out a lot by helping them overcome some of their fears but I think realistically they taught me more and I learned so much from them and it was a lot of fun,” elucidated the former London Knight.

“It’s something that my wife and I are involved in personally so we really believe in it and we want to work with them as much as we can.”

While Kostopoulos has remained active within the community over the years, his wife has continued to show her support for both him and the community, as she also helps out with the work that he does off the ice.

“My wife wanted to do something this year to help out and the Impact Society has the HEROES program so she wanted to volunteer and train to work with them,” he mentioned.

“If we’re back in Calgary next year she’ll definitely get involved with that again,” he added.

The Impact Society is a leader in youth development that works to create positive outcomes for youth by building the characteristics that contribute to greater resilience in youth. They help teens make better life decisions and give them a better head start into adulthood. Through the HEROES program, Kostopoulos pledged to donate money for every hit that he made throughout the regular season.

“Hitting is a part of my game so I hit a lot to help out the team but knowing that through that I can help change a kid’s life in a small way, it’s nice and satisfying for sure,” chuckled Kostopoulos.

Another foundation that the Kostopoulos’ are heavily involved in is Garth Brooks’ Teammates for Kids Foundation; a non-profit organization whose purpose is to contribute financial resources to selected non-profit organizations that effectively serve and benefit children with an emphasis on health, education and inner-city services.

“My wife and I have been giving back to Teammates for Kids for the last six or seven years now,” mentioned Kostopoulos.

“It’s a known charity throughout the NBA, MLB, NFL, NHL and soccer as well,” he continued.

“They benefit children of any age and give money to non-profit organizations that serve children, plus the Foundation triples each athlete’s donation so it’s one that we really like to give to.”

At the end of the day, it’s not all about the total money raised or earned for Kostopoulos, it’s about how many smiles he can put on the kids faces that day and how many lives he can help change for the better.

“I just want to help out kids in any way,” he stated.

“I think that my family has been very fortunate to have the things that we have and be healthy and do the things that we love to do so we want to give back and help out kids in any way possible and any charity that my wife and I have worked with has been to help out kids,” he proceeded.

“We just want to make their lives easier and help show them down the right path.”

To learn more about the Canadian Celiac Association, visit http://www.celiac.ca/

To learn more about the Impact Society and the HEROES program, visit http://www.impactsociety.com/index.php

To learn more about Garth Brooks’ Teammates for Kids Foundation, visit http://www.teammatesforkids.com/

“71 Athletics is a footwear company that I came up with by having the opportunity of working in Detroit with a PAL football league, which was a league with a lot of kids coming from single parent homes. A lot of parents are already struggling to sign the kid up and then you tell them they have to outfit them, buy them shoes and things of that nature in able to compete,” Tharpe explained.

“We had mothers telling us about buying $50-$60 shoes that will be worn for 8-10 games at most so when I came up with 71 Athletics I found a manufacturer that could produce decent shoes that could be sold at an affordable price. I wanted to be able to put something out there that I would be proud of, even in the NFL,” he continued.

In many communities organized sport is a primary way to keep the youth active while engaging them in a competitive and educational state of mind. In states such as Michigan especially around the Detroit area, locals have been faced with tight financial stability as of late, with many questioning the city’s future and importance to the American economy; a circumstance that is far out of reach for locals and youth looking to contribute and connect within society, something that can be found through organized sport.

“My goal is to give everybody an equal opportunity in whatever it may be because sports is huge for the community and bringing people together. That’s the one time whether you dislike somebody or not, you both have the same goal and that’s to win. It kind of blends us together, so I saw an opportunity there,” says Tharpe.

Faced with many adversities on his way to professional football, Larry Tharpe gives credit and praise to those around him who gave him the opportunity to live the dream so many young Americans dreamt about.

“Well it’s important to me because somebody gave Larry Tharpe a chance so I believe in paying it forward. Somebody gave me the opportunity and we always forget about those we leave behind,” the offensive tackle mentioned.

“I had not even played one down of college football going into the spring and Rob Ryan had just got hired to our coaching staff and saw me running and said to me ‘You can go to college and get a job or you can play this game that pays you a nice ransom,’” he elucidated.

“So I perfected my craft and the rest was history.”

Although Tharpe chose to pursue his dream of playing professional football, he encourages and supports education as it is an essential tool to becoming successful.

“I’m one of those guys that understood that hard work pays off because nobody’s going to give you anything, but if you work towards something it can happen,” Tharpe explained. “I don’t talk against school because it’s essential, but they can go together, school and athletics go together, that’s why we’re called student athletes and student comes first, it always does,” he proceeded.

“My goal behind it was to help somebody, inspire somebody to get out here and do some things.”

One of the beautiful things about minor league organized sports is the equality that comes with playing within a team. Things like matching uniforms quickly eliminate all outside factors of the game in regards to the financial situation of any given family. At the end of the day the better player will have the most drive and determination, something Larry Tharpe says he quickly came to realize when looking into 71 Athletics.

“Wearing uniforms cuts down on the demographics so it comes down to skill and who the better athlete is, not what you can afford to buy or what your mother can afford to buy you, it comes down to talent.”

Aside from providing the youth with quality but affordable football cleats, Larry hopes to host various football camps to teach the kids not only football fundamentals, but the importance of hard work, drive and self motivation. For Larry Tharpe, 71 Athletics is only the start of making a positive and effective impact on minor sports, not only in the Detroit area, but nationwide.

St. Louis Blues assistant coach Scott Mellanby started giving back and making a difference while he was playing in the NHL and continues to do so now that he is retired and working with one of his former teams. It was a lot tougher to get a foundation up and running when the players weren’t making a ridiculous amount of money, but Mellanby worked with what he had and made it possible while playing in the NHL and is glad to see the players of today getting involved more than ever.

“One thing with professional athletes and organizations is that they are pretty involved in their communities. They try to do what they can when it comes to getting their players involved with the charity outings in the community,” explained Mellanby.

“I started in the NHL in 1986 so I would say that was when I first started giving back to the community. It was nothing really above and beyond from what anyone else was doing from an athlete’s standpoint, but we got requests for golf and charity events.”

“I think because of the increase in the player’s salaries over the years, there’s a lot more philanthropy stuff going on, with agents getting their clients involved with charity work and wanting them to start their own foundations,” continued the Montreal, Quebec native. “I think it’s fantastic what they are doing nowadays because it wasn’t like that back in the day.”

While playing with the Florida Panthers, Scott and his wife learned that their son, Carter, was diagnosed with autism. Although it took him and his wife some time to get through the tragic side of things, this never held Scott back or got in his way. It was just another challenge that he would be faced with in life and he ended up using his social status to help benefit his son and every other family who has and will be put in the same situation as him.

“My wife and I talked about it and being a so-called celebrity and having the opportunity to raise some money and do some things. We felt like it was the right thing to do and felt like we had the power like a celebrity would,” recounted the Flyers’ 27^th overall pick in the 1984 NHL Entry Draft.

In 1999, Mellanby and his wife Susan established the Mellanby Autism Foundation; a non-profit organization that provides direct care services to individuals and families who have been affected by autism.

“We get credited for starting foundations and doing this kind of stuff. Obviously for us there was a direct relationship to our family so it was a natural thing to do, but there are a lot of athletes and non-athletes that are doing what they can nowadays to get involved with charities even if they weren’t affected by it and I think those people are very special for wanting to get involved and they deserve a lot of credit for that,” expressed Mellanby.

He started his Foundation while playing with the Panthers, an organization he shared some memorable and historic moments with over the years; whether it be scoring the first ever goal in franchise history in 1993 or starting the “rat trick” craze during the 1996 run to the Stanley Cup Finals. He was always appreciated in every city that he played in and he took advantage of it. He did whatever he could for the Florida Panthers community and the fans that supported the team and he would be rewarded by the organization in a way he could not imagine.

“About one year after my son was diagnosed with autism we were at an autism event with the team and I was sitting with Wayne Huizenga, the owner of the Panthers at the time,” elucidated Mellanby.

“I got up and gave a little speech and announced that we were directly affected by it with our son being diagnosed. As soon as I finished, Wayne made a $250,000 donation to our Foundation on the spot which was very amazing and very special to us,” he continued.

“I was an employee at the time playing for him and you don’t usually have that relationship with the owner of the team. At this point I played for him for about four or five years so at the time it was surreal and it meant a lot because it was his way of showing me that he appreciated what I was doing for the team and the area. It was a really emotional night for me, it was very difficult.”

Mellanby was also involved with another project called Athletes Against Autism with former NHL goalies Byron Dafoe and Olaf Kolzig. Athletes Against Autism was a group of athletes who were personally touched by autism and wanted to help raise awareness and funds for autism research, treatment and education programs. Although it is no longer around, this was one of the things that Scott Mellanby is most proud of being a part of.

“Even though AAA was only around for three or four years it was one of the things I was very proud to be a part of. Just working with Byron Dafoe and Olaf Kolzig was a great time,” expressed Mellanby.

“It’s not always just about the amount of money that you raise because raising awareness is just as important. In the first year we had about two or three NHL buildings that allowed us to have an Autism Awareness Night and by our final year we were up to about half the teams in the league.”

Currently working with the Blues as an assistant coach, Scott Mellanby continues to do what he can in a city that opened up their arms to him and his family. He gets to teach the young players of today what it means to be an NHL player off the ice and a role model that not just the hockey community can look up to, but the entire community as a whole. He continues to raise money and awareness for autism, but also helps out other charities and causes when possible. He helped make a difference in the hockey world and the cities that he played for while he was playing in the NHL and he still continues to do so even though his playing career is over.

To learn more about the Mellanby Autism Foundation, visit http://www.mellanbyautismfoundation.org/

For former All-American offensive tackle for the University of Kansas and the 3^rd round pick by the Denver Broncos in the 1984 NFL Supplemental Draft of USFL and CFL Players, Chicago native Reggie Smith currently sits as the President of the Retired Professional Football Players of Chicago; a non-profit organization of former professional football players who work voluntarily to support youth and charities and give back to the community by supporting children and education programs and is also the President of the NFLPA Former Players Chapter of Chicago.

For Smith, he’s known since his first visit to a school to speak to the children that giving back to the kids and spending time with them was what he wanted to do with his time.

“A friend of mine gave me a call and said ‘let’s take a ride and visit some kids,’ so we ended up dropping by a school and visited some kids who were having trouble with school, trouble passing and trouble outside of school,” explained Smith. “As I was leaving the school and got into the car, I realized that day that the time I spent there made an impact on those kids and that was something I found pretty moving and I realized that was what I wanted to do with my time.”

The Retired Professional Football Players of Chicago and the NFLPA Former Players Chapter of Chicago are not the only organizations that Smith dedicates his time to. He’s also very active with AMIkids; an organization that provides the kids within the community an opportunity to transform into responsible young adults and help them develop confidence and competency in vital life skills and educational areas. Through the programs, kids learn to accept personal responsibility and the assistance to help make better choices in life.

“The feeling you get from helping someone else is indescribable,” stated Smith.

“When I was a young boy, I would help out in the neighbourhood twice a week with my grandparents, whether it was feeding or clothing the homeless and hungry or volunteering in some way,” he added. “Every time I give back I feel like I’m paying respect to my parents and grandparents.”

As much as the former member of the Tampa Bay Bandits of the USFL enjoys spending his time with the children and doing whatever he can for them, he understands that there are important things to learn when you want to get involved with a team or a sport. One of the things that he stresses is raising awareness for brain injuries and concussions as he feels that it is the most important injury to talk to the children, coaches and parents about.

“Sports across the board are now more popular than they have ever been and kids are getting involved at very young ages so we need to as coaches, parents and adults make sure that they are having fun in the game, but at the same time we’re protecting them and making sure that they can enjoy their chosen sport for years to come and that takes a lot of education,” discussed Smith.

“If you received an injury to the head when I played, the first questions you were asked were ‘how many fingers do you see?’ and ‘where are you?’ and if you were unlucky enough to answer those questions correctly, then you were put back out there to play,” he continued.

“It’s tough with the brain because when a bone is broken you can always tell that it is broken and something is wrong but you can’t see what’s going on inside the brain so that’s why it’s such a risk to send athletes back out there after a head injury.”

Giving back to the community and lending a helping hand in any way possible has always been on Reggie Smith’s to-do list. He’s been helping others since he was just six-years old and hasn’t stopped looking out for others since then. He does whatever he can for the city that he’s been able to call home for a majority  of his life and would like to give the youth of today a chance to become men and the role models of tomorrow. He knows that regardless of your role in life, giving back and helping out within your community is something that everyone should be involved with.

“I think that all athletes should be giving back to the community or to a charity,” expressed Smith.

“My philosophy is that not only athletes, but every human being in whatever way should give back to society. I think we often make the mistake that we think we have to have a certain financial situation or the free time to give back, but it doesn’t matter what time you have or what your financial situation is because there is always something that you can do to go beyond yourself and touch someone else,” he asserted.

“However, I believe that athletes especially should be giving back because they have been given a different type of blessing and they have the opportunity to do something that not everybody has the opportunity to do.”

To learn more about the NFLPA Former Players Chapter of Chicago, visit https://www.nflplayers.com/About-us/Former-Players/Former-Player-Chapters/

To learn more about the Retired Professional Football Players of Chicago, visit http://www.rpfpc.com/

To learn more about AMIkids, visit http://www.amikids.org/