{"id":12569,"date":"2012-05-17T15:38:52","date_gmt":"2012-05-17T19:38:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jetnation.com\/?p=12569"},"modified":"2012-05-17T17:42:09","modified_gmt":"2012-05-17T21:42:09","slug":"ny-jets-partner-with-the-united-way-nyc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/miletestsite.com\/jets\/2012\/05\/17\/ny-jets-partner-with-the-united-way-nyc\/","title":{"rendered":"NY Jets Partner With The United Way NYC"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Grande Ballroom at the Waldorf Astoria was flooded with talent this past Tuesday night.\u00a0 The two rival stadium-sharing New York teams put their differences aside for the night to raise awareness and money for the United Way New York City at the annual Gridiron Gala.\u00a0\u00a0 Among the sea of suits were well known players of the present and the past.\u00a0 Representing the Giants were Sean Landeta, Karl Nelson, Victor Cruz, and Hakeem Nicks.\u00a0 From the Jets (my reason for being there) were Joe Klecko, Joe Namath, Dustin Keller, and D\u2019Brickashaw Ferguson, among others.\u00a0 Guards from both teams Brandon Moore and Chris Snee were the Hometown Honorees.<\/p>\n

The United Way New York has had years of success with raising money for the underprivileged families of New York City.\u00a0 Tuesday\u2019s affair was proof of this success with a grand total of $1.5 million raised.\u00a0 Every year hundreds of corporate leaders and NFL players gather at the Waldorf Astoria to not only raise money, but to honor those well deserved for their charitable due diligence.\u00a0 Focusing on the New York Jets, Brandon Moore and his wife have formed the Moore Family Foundation.\u00a0 Moore and his wife attended a Newark school and challenged the children to read by starting the Read Moore Challenge.\u00a0 Although the money goes to families, Moore\u2019s foundation primarily focuses on the children and their needs.<\/p>\n

The night before the gala I had the wonderful opportunity to interview Gordon Campbell, the President and CEO of The United Way NYC<\/a>.\u00a0 During our conversation he elaborated upon the success of the program, and the purpose of the Gridiron Gala.<\/p>\n

CA:<\/strong>\u00a0 I want to thank you for the invite to the Gridiron Gala.\u00a0 Last year was very successful and hopefully this year will be as well.\u00a0 The purpose of this year\u2019s event is to raise money for the lower income families of New York.\u00a0 Can you elaborate on that for readers?<\/p>\n

GC:<\/strong>\u00a0 Yes, This is to benefit average kids in New York City, both from and educational setting and really working with kids from 3 years olds up to high school to ensure that they are getting the education they need, that they can graduate on time, and go on to have successful lives.\u00a0 Obviously education is an important issue, and avenge kids are the ones that need the attention the most.\u00a0 It\u2019s not only from an education perspective, but a health and nutrition perspective.\u00a0 As part of our work we find over five-hundred food pantries and soup kitchens, and unfortunately all too many New Yorkers are having to show up on a Monday morning or Saturday afternoon for a meal or a bag of groceries.\u00a0 This is important for the young people.\u00a0 Working with young people from a holistic perspective, I have to tell you, without the Jets support, we couldn\u2019t do what we do year after year.<\/p>\n

CA:<\/strong>\u00a0 You know that\u2019s just like with me and football.\u00a0 The longer I am with Jet Nation and just paying attention to the Jets, I think almost every player has a charity and they are so supportive of all different charities. \u00a0I know some of them focus on charities that affect them personally.\u00a0 For example, Brandon Moore, the Hometown Hero, he highly deserves it.<\/p>\n

GC:<\/strong>\u00a0 I love the Read Moore Challenge.\u00a0 I think it\u2019s cute and it sticks and it works, and that his wife is involved with it.\u00a0 That\u2019s the think with the Jets players, they really roll up their sleeves and yes, it\u2019s all about what happens on the field, but even more-so, what happens in their communities and the idea of giving back.\u00a0 Just to give you a sense, this is our nineteenth year of having the Gridiron Gala with the Jets and the Giants.\u00a0 In the past 18 years, through this great partnership, we raised over $22 million.\u00a0 We expect to do well tomorrow.\u00a0 I don\u2019t know if you saw our list of players….<\/p>\n

CA:<\/strong>\u00a0 Yes I did! \u00a0I am looking forward to meeting Joe Namath.<\/p>\n

GC:<\/strong>\u00a0 Joe Namath has been there for the past four or five years, and is the nicest guy in the world.\u00a0 He will talk to anyone and sign any football.\u00a0 To have him a part of the mix is great.<\/p>\n

CA:<\/strong>\u00a0 What future projects do you have in store for the United Way?<\/p>\n

GC:<\/strong>\u00a0 Each year with the Jets we do an annual project.\u00a0 I do not know yet what we are doing this year, but it is something that the United Way puts together and do with as many players as possible.<\/p>\n

CA:<\/strong>\u00a0 That\u2019s really good.\u00a0 What makes you different from other charities or foundations that support the same cause?<\/p>\n

GC:<\/strong>\u00a0 That\u2019s a very good question.\u00a0 The difference is that our work is all about investing in average kids.\u00a0 We come up with lasting solutions where we cannot only address the young people we are working with, but take the winning solutions, and really push them out across the city.\u00a0 It is a very different way of operating.\u00a0 It\u2019s more of asking what is a program piece, it\u2019s finding out the elements that work so we can push it out on all\u00a0 schools across the city, and find ways to continue it\u2019s progress.\u00a0 For example, we have a goal to reduce the drop out rate by 50% by 2018.\u00a0 This is not only for United Way NYC, but for across the country.\u00a0 It is all about partnerships and the Jets are a perfect example, and what both the individual players of both the retired and present bring to bear.\u00a0 If we are going to make progress, it is about everyone saying, \u201cThis is an issue, and I care about it.\u201d\u00a0 That is how one differentiates us.<\/p>\n

CA:<\/strong>\u00a0 I know you don\u2019t only focus on the children, but a large part is about them, and that is how the Moore Foundation works.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

GC:\u00a0 We do more than just help the children, but it is a big part of our work.\u00a0 How I described our formula for success is applicable to all of our work.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

CA:\u00a0 This all sounds very exciting and I am happy to be a part of it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Grande Ballroom at the Waldorf Astoria was flooded with talent this past Tuesday night.\u00a0 The two rival stadium-sharing New York teams put their differences aside for the night to raise awareness and money for the United Way New York City at the annual Gridiron Gala.\u00a0\u00a0 Among the sea of suits were well known players […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":26,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-12569","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-featured-editorials"},"acf":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/peLffi-3gJ","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/miletestsite.com\/jets\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12569","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/miletestsite.com\/jets\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/miletestsite.com\/jets\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/miletestsite.com\/jets\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/26"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/miletestsite.com\/jets\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12569"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/miletestsite.com\/jets\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12569\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12594,"href":"https:\/\/miletestsite.com\/jets\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12569\/revisions\/12594"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/miletestsite.com\/jets\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12569"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/miletestsite.com\/jets\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12569"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/miletestsite.com\/jets\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12569"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}