In June, as Seahawks players, like so many people around the country, tried to come to grips with the killings of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and Ahmaud Arbery, the Seahawks Players Equality & Justice For All Action Fund pledged to donate $500,000 in grants that would go to local organizations working toward social injustice causes and supporting our local youth.
On Tuesday, the Seahawks Players Fund announced the recipients of that money.
The Seahawks Players Fund awarded $250,000 in grants to six local organizations:
The other $250,000 has been allocated to a college scholarship fund created in partnership with the Seattle Foundation, which will be called The Seahawks Players' Equality & Justice for All Scholarship Fund.
The scholarships are aimed to build a more compassionate and inclusive society by supporting career opportunities for students who have overcome significant adversity, and preference will be given to students of color and first-generation college students.
The scholarships will be renewable for a total of two or four years, and the deadline to apply for the 2021 school year is on March 1. More information, including the application, can be found at seattlefoundation.org or https://seattlefoundation.smapply.org/prog/seahawks_scholarship/.
"As a member of the Seattle Seahawks Players Equality & Justice for All Fund, I am happy to announce that the fund will award $10,000 scholarships to youth of color for trade two-year and four-year degrees," said Seahawks Legend Doug Baldwin, who was instrumental in launching the Players fund in 2017. "When we started on this path a long time ago, we knew that real change, in part, was going to come from us educating ourselves and then passing down that information to the next generation that came behind us. And we know that every generation has a chance to make a difference, but only together can we make real and lasting change."
Said Seahawks linebacker K.J. Wright: "I'm super excited. The Players Fund, they donate money, but what we're doing now is we're creating a scholarship fund for high school kids to go to college. That's really big, education is important, and a lot of people can't afford it, or get a full scholarship like I did, or academic scholarships, so we wanted to start this (scholarship fund). Kids have to apply—you got to apply, just go to the Seattle Foundation website. Apply, send in a video, and a few of the guys will pick a few students to receive $10,000 every year that they're in school. We're super excited to give back to the community. Just go to the website, anybody can apply. We're super excited to be able to tap into the community and help these young kids out."
The Seahawks Players Equality & Justice For All Action Fund was launched in 2017 "in an effort to create lasting change and build a more compassionate and inclusive society," and since then it has given more than a million dollars in grants to local organizations and schools.
Fans wishing to learn more about the Seahawks Players Action Fund or who want to donate can do so at https://www.seattlefoundation.org/nonprofits/communitycampaigns/seahawks-players-action-fund.
