On Tuesday, Nov. 20th, Dre’ Bly joined by teammates Rod Smith and Ian Gold wanted to ensure that the families of Place Middle School (The Dre’ Bly Foundation has adopted Place for the year) had plenty to be thankful for. Keeping up with a tradition he began in Detroit, Dre’ worked with King Soopers to provide a turkey and holiday meal items for 165 families. Students and their families arrived at the school Tuesday evening and were thrilled to be greeted by Bly, Smith and Gold who signed autographs as they helped hand out goodies.
The neat thing about this program and Dre’ is that he started working on in back in August. Dre’ contacted our community development department during the summer and begand figuring out how he could continue his community work here in Denver. He hired a director for his foundation and got right to work selecting a middle school (because as he said they are often overlooked becuase they are at an in-between age) that served students that may need a little extra help from time to time. Dre’s Foundation set up a metoring/tutoring program and he visists regularly. He bought 25 game tickets for each Broncos home game to reward kids doing well in their mentoring/tutoring programs. When you consider how busy these guys are (Dre’ has four children of his own!) and the weekly demands put upon them with a big game looming each Sunday…it is special to see a guy but a lot of heart, thought and planning into a great event that helped an entire community.
The event on Tuesday was definitely a success but the bigger impact Dre’ has made on these kids–letting them know that he is there to support and encourage them–that is something the students and their families will remember and benefit from long after Tuesday. Isn’t that what the holiday season is there to remind us of each and every year? Lending a hand to help one another can continue beyond November and December..thanks for being such a wonderful example of that Dre’!