Jason Witten S.C.O.R.E. Foundation
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Jason Witten slaps five with a girl from the Family Place Shelter in Dallas during the foundation's launch party in December. |
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Through six seasons, Jason Witten has emerged as one of the top tight ends in the NFL on and off the playing field and has established himself as one of the most prolific pass catching tight ends in Cowboys history. This December, he was selected to his fifth consecutive Pro Bowl, tying Jay Novacek for the most Pro Bowls by a Cowboys tight end.
It’s a RARE occasion that Jason is not available to lend a helping hand when it comes to children or charity, and has a very special way of connecting with kids and families. Jason Witten is living proof that even an uncertain home life as a young child can turn around with a strong positive role model as his grandfather and football coach provided he and his brothers. You couldn’t ask for a better person, role model, husband, father or teammate to represent the National Football League. As one of the Dallas Cowboys coaches recently said to Emily Robbins, Cowboys Community Relations Director, “Jason is the real deal and more.” This year, Witten’s SCORE Foundation has launched numerous outreach programs and funded several new building projects in Texas and his native Tennessee. Now in the second year, The Jason Witten SCORE Foundation, again hosted a Christmas party for more than 50 families served by Family Place, a Dallas shelter for victims of domestic violence and their children. The party, which took place at Speed Zone, a family entertainment park in Dallas, featured Jason and several of his Cowboys teammates playing with the kids and providing gifts for them and their mothers. Jason’s foundation was established in part to provide support and assistance for those families and individuals affected by domestic violence.
Also, this holiday season 2008 Witten and the Allstate Foundation hosted clients from SafeHaven in Fort Worth and Brighter Tomorrows in Grand Prairie to a holiday party at Allstate’s Texas Regional Campus in Irving. Witten is provided a holiday meal for the families and treated them each to special games and activities, along with Christmas gifts – including bicycles provided by Academy Sports and Outdoors. After being named one of four finalists for the 2007 NFL Walter Payton Man of the Year award at Super Bowl, Witten started 2008 by launching the Jason Witten SCOREkeepers program, a unique initiative placing full-time, trained male mentors in battered women’s shelters throughout Texas. The mentors seek to demonstrate positive male behavior to the children living in these shelters in an effort to break the cycle of violence that plagues families affected by abuse. With the help of a generous $100,000 grant from the Allstate Foundation, Jason Witten’s SCORE Foundation has placed SCOREkeepers in five shelters across the Lone Star State – The Family Place (Dallas), SafeHaven (Fort Worth), Family Violence Prevention Services (San Antonio), New Beginning Center (Garland) and Safe Place (Austin). A sixth SCOREkeeper will soon be placed at Denton County Friends of the Family. In addition to his distinguished work in the battle against domestic violence, Witten also used some of the nearly $225,000 raised by the first annual Jason Witten’s SCORE Foundation All-Star Bowl in May to build a Jason Witten Media Center, complete with a state-of-the-art recording studio, at a local Dallas Boys & Girls Club center.
In the early summer of 2008, Jason furthered his commitment to NFL Play 60 with a local media campaign in North Texas with the Ad Council. He cut radio and TV spots to run in the North Texas area promoting Play 60 during a summer media road block. He also spoke at the press conference hosted at Texas Stadium to help kick off the local campaign. A part of the press conference included youth from Boys & Girls Clubs of Arlington participating in physical fitness activities including Hoola-Hoop, Jump Rope and of course a little football! In June, Witten returned to his hometown of Elizabethton, Tenn., where he hosted the sixth annual Jason Witten Football Camp. With approximately 1,000 kids attending, the camp is one of the largest free football camps in America, and revenue raised from camp sponsorships went to the construction of the Jason Witten Literacy Center, which is set to open early next year at the Elizabethton Boys & Girls Club. Last year, Jason lent his “celebrity” for the community and the screen, starring in a popular United Way PSA about the importance of volunteering. The spot was filmed at his annual summer at Jason’s free football camp.
Jason and his wife Michelle, a registered nurse, recently made a commitment to fund another major project in their home state of Tennessee, as well. The foundation pledged to spend $200,000 over the next four years to fund the construction of a brand new Jason Witten-themed emergency waiting room at The Children’s Hospital at Johnson City Medical Center in Johnson City, Tenn. The new hospital and the waiting room are scheduled to be completed in February.
In September 2008, Witten was honored by the Texas Council on Family Violence as one of the 30 Stars Over Texas, joining Governor Rick Perry, US Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison, US Senator John Cornyn and former Governor Ann Richards, among others, as 30 people who have made a significant difference in fighting domestic violence in Texas over the last 30 years. This fall, Witten was named a Home Depot NFL Neighborhood MVP, honoring him for his extensive work in the community by building a playground in his honor at Inspired Vision Academy in Dallas. Witten worked alongside more than 150 Home Depot employees to build the playground, and he is currently listed as one of the 10 finalists for the league-wide Neighborhood MVP award, which will be selected at the end of the season.
In continuing his advocacy for the proper development of children – both inside and outside of the classroom – Jason for the last five years, has taken an elementary age youth to school as part of the NFL’s Take a Player to School program. This year, Jason – with a healing broken rib – spoke to the students and about the importance of Play 60 and making healthy eating choices. He also, participated in physical fitness activities and football drills with the home room class off the winning student.
Last year, in an effort to help further promote the NFL’s commitment to getting kids healthy and active, Jason starred alongside Reggie Bush and Antonio Gates in a commercial for the NFL’s Play 60 program, which emphasizes the importance of getting kids up and active for at least 60 minutes a day. In the spring of 2008,
Beyond those initiatives, Jason is involved in several other projects including: Boys & Girls Clubs of Collin County, Touchdowns for Tots (for every touchdown the Cowboys make, WaMu donates $500 to Dallas Achieves! – a Dallas ISD program), the Children’s Cancer Fund Fashion Show, The Salvation Army, Make-A-Wish, Toys for Tots, Happy Hill Farm – Home of the Ed Block Courage House, SPCA of Texas, North Texas Food Bank, and more.
The Jason Witten SCORE Foundation is a non-profit 501c3 corporation. It is funded entirely by Witten himself and through the generous contributions of individual donors and corporate partners.
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