Athletes in Service (Final JUA Project)

Athletes In Service Junior Urban Adventure Final Project

Introduction

We went to visit the charity organizations for the New England Patriots and Boston Bruins.

We created three different perspectives about what professional athletes today feel about community service.

As we learned more about these programs, we could more clearly define these three perspectives.

Out to Lunch

What we did and where we went

We met Jessica Freeman; representative for the New England Patriots community outreach program

Ms. Freeman emphasized the importance of community service in the Patriots organization

3 mandatory events are required for the athletes to go to each year (in their Contracts), however most athletes exceed their expectations.

The Kraft family strongly supports many charitable and philanthropic agencies throughout new England

At the Patriots Meeting

Continued

They explained to us that they have more than one organization that they help every year. Each year they evaluate how much funding goes to a specific organization, and who needs it most

We met Bob Sweeny (former Bruins player and recent winner of the annual “good guy award”

TD Bank North Garden from the ninth floor seating

At the Boston Sports Museum

What is the Patriots Foundation?

The charitable foundation is the non-profit entity which is created but the Kraft family to support charitable and philanthropy agencies though out the New England Region.

The support is from direct grants and donations towards a charitable causes. Also from players who offer ﾊ to volunteer by appearing at these functions through out the year.

This organization was established once Robert Kraft ﾊ bought the Patriots in the year 1994 in order to give back to the community.

This organization has been in effect for 13 years and has made thousands of donations to many non- profit organizations.

What is the Bruins Foundation?

The Boston Bruins foundation is a non-profit foundation whose mission is to help charitable organizations that demonstrate a strong dedication to providing a better quality for children in their community.

This organization has raised up to $4 million amongst a series of fundraising events.

This foundation concentrates on three areas which are Athletics, academics and health.

Amongst these areas the foundation supports programs that use sports to teach life skills and opportunities for disadvantage youth.

Bob Bailey created the Ace Bailey foundation as well as the Good Guy Award

Three Perspectives

1. Athletes make good decisions, are good people, and give back to their roots. They do this to help enrich their experience.

The New England Patriots seemed to fit this description the best. Their organization as well as their players genuinely seemed to care about giving back to their community and helping in any way they can.

2. Franchises have outreach programs and maintain relationships with charities to compensate for poor behavior.

Based on our observations and interviews with the people of the public, this perspective is typically how athletes are viewed. They majority of the people interviewed stated how they felt that athletes and organizations participated in charity and community service events to help make up for poor behavior.

3. Community service and charity events are provided for the players so they do it. They are indifferent.,

The third perspective seemed to fit the Boston Bruins organization. ﾊ The charity and community service events were often times provided for the players rather than them volunteering. Players would usually participate when asked, but sometimes had to be forced to go. ﾊ The Bruins seemed to be more worried about being in the press rather than actually giving back to the community.

Getting Different Perspectives From all Ages.

At the Pro Shop for Boston Athletics

We think that the views that are in an organization depend on the leaders and founders of the teams.

Some athletes really do community service because they genially care about the causes they are involved in. We saw this after we interviewed the bruins and Ex-Player Bob Sweeney. They showed us how compassionate they were by never stating how it was to help the image but how it was really to give back to their community. Bob Sweeney talked about how when he was a professional player, Community Service enriched his experience because he felt as if he was giving back to the fans who cheered him on. They also told stories of players who really tried to reach out to all the kids in an organization in the hospital. One player approached a shy kid who was very sick and started to talk to him. Within fifteen minutes the kid was so chatty that they said he wouldn’t stop talking. But it really shows how much a player can impact a smaller child’s life and the Bruins Organization really realizes that.

During the patriots interview we learned that their foundation mostly cares about keeping the teams image. The perspective was that athletes do the work so they can make up for the bad decision they had made and how they can bring back their image they once had. We agreed that the players do this. The players for instance will make a bad decision and then find an organization strong enough so it takes away the bad image and replaces it with a new one. During the interview we were told that once that player makes a bad decision they most likely removed from the team so they can maintain the perfect professional sports team image.

Perspectives we disagreed with

We disagree with our third perspective because although it’s always available players don’t just do it to do it. Although it may happen in some organizations both the organizations said that players would either be eager to do it or they wouldn’t do it at all. Organizations seem to either have their players who really want to do community service, like the Bruins, or who don’t really want to do it at all, like the Patriots.

Further Research