Three a.m. came very early this morning and I have a brand new appreciation for the folks who broadcast live radio and live television during the early morning rush hour.
Upon arriving at our Denver Broncos Boys and Girls Club in Montbello 45 minutes later, I was greeted by Rich Barrows, our club director who is a rock star and had spent endless hours overnight making our club absolutely pristine in preparation for our live radio remote today with partner News Radio 850 KOA benefitting the Darrent Williams Memorial Teen Center legacy project.
At 4:45 a.m., in walks Guy Johnson, a regular Club member and future member of the Darrent Williams Memorial Teen Center. Guy has become friends with Rod Smith over the past couple of years and his mentor is clearly rubbing off as Guy can be seen often in the end zone. Might I say that I was very touched that Guy was ready to go and support Darrent’s legacy bright and early this morning.
Shortly after, at 5:20 a.m., in walks Broncos linebacker Louis Green and he could not have been more gracious and more focused on our goal at hand — to raise awareness for the Teen Center and thank our community fans. Thank you, Louis.
Once the hour of 6 a.m. rolled around, the Club was just in a frenzy with wonderful community members, kids and so many of our Broncos players on hand that it appeared as though the entire roster came out in honor of Darrent Williams.
Domonique Foxworth, who has been our right-hand man during this whole effort and recruited the players along with Kelly Woodward in our office, made many radio and television appearances this morning to raise funds and awareness and to meet and greet the kids. He remains committed to his Tuesday writing class with these Club kids as well.
I am worried that trying to print the name of every player who was there (nearly 45) will put me at risk of omitting someone … So let me summarize some highlights. Rod Smith started the online auction bidding for one of five Darrent Williams-signed footballs. The bidding is still open at positiveplacedenver.org and will be open through Thursday of this week at 5 p.m. Ian Gold talked with KOA about growing up in a Boys and Girls Club in Michigan and helping the Broncos open our Club in August of 2003. It was great to see Ian out there this morning.
Nate Jackson, who brought all his great energy and spirit to the event this morning, will work with me on having one of his truly amazing journal entries (his tribute to D-Will last January) permanently crafted into the mural wall inside the Teen Center … really special!
Remembering our goal of raising funds ($98,000 left of our renovation budget) and awareness today, the awareness was stellar with the KOA morning crew of April, Steffan, Dan, Jason and Kenny pulling out all the stops. Javon Walker helped us close the morning with his on-air pledge of $30,000 … yes, $30,000! Many thanks, Javon.
As of now, our fundraising total is roughly $36,000 today (that will join our $125,000 from Shanahan Golf this summer and $155,600 from the City and County of Denver which is simply awesome) and we still have the auction going live at positiveplacedenver.org through Thursday. We welcome your support as a legacy is born.
God Bless Javon Walker! He has been nothing but a class-act and an inspiration throughout what has to be one of the toughest times of his life. I will forever be a fan of his regardless of what he does on the football field.
I will be a fan of the Bronco team! They loved Darrent more than anyone besides his mother and family of course, Jevon, God bless you honey! You went through a terrible ordeal and I will keep you in my prayers! This has got to be devastating to everyone involved in his life! I still cry when I see a picture of him, hear someone mention him for a commendation of some kind, when I get the Orange and Blue and there is his name! He is up there looking down with a big Darrent Bronco smile that every one loved! I guess Jesus needed him on his team! He got a good one!