NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- The Tennessee Titans and all NFL franchises have a great history partnering with charitable organizations promoting gameday charity drives to raise awareness and provide help for the less fortunate. The charitable partnerships give fans the opportunity to easily donate items on game days.
Since arriving in Nashville in 1997 as the Tennessee Oilers, this franchise has continued the tradition established long ago in Houston of joining with their fans to assist others.
The Titans began their game day charity drives with two organizations that continue as participating partners. The U.S. Marie Corps Reserve Toys for Tots drive and the Second Harvest Food Drive were the team's first two charity drive organizations, collecting toys and food from excited Tennessee Oilers fans.
The Titans have since added six more partner organizations, including their own charity drive, Titans Foundation Coat drive which has benefited thousands Tennesseans.
The expanded alignment of charity drive partners includes Nurses for Newborns, LP Building Products Pencil Box program, YWCA's "Undie Sunday" drive for ladies undergarments, AT&T cell phone drive, Soles4Souls shoe drive and the Titans Coat Drive. Each organization has received a tremendous amount of support from the great Tennessee Titans' fans.
In celebration of all the hard work by the drives staff and volunteers, the Tennessee Titans hosted a luncheon recognizing all the gameday event organizations. Each organization received a plaque and a wonderful thank you from the Titans Foundation and the community they serve. Here is a brief recap of the eight drives:
Nurses for Newborns Baby Shower (8/23/10 Titans vs. Arizona Cardinals):
The sixth annual drive for Nurses for Newborns was once again billed as "Nashville's Largest Baby Shower" with Titans fans donating much-needed baby items to be distributed to disadvantaged families with newborns across Middle Tennessee. For more information, visit www.nfnf.org.
LP Pencil Box Drive (9/12/10 Titans vs. Oakland Raiders):
For the fifth year, LP Building Products joins forces with the Titans and Pencil Foundation to collect school supplies for needy Nashville school students. Fans once again showed overwhelming amount of support to the LP Pencil Box Program. With the help of 32 volunteers from the PENCIL Foundation and LP Building Products, they collected over 32,000 individual school supplies from fans entering the stadium! Supplies collected on this day account for over $24,000 of assistance to Metro Nashville Public Schools. For more information about the LP Pencil Box partnership and the Pencil Foundation visit http://www.pencilfd.org/pencilbox or http://www.pencilfoundation.org/.
"We are thrilled with the generosity and enthusiasm Titans fans have shown. With their help, we have restocked classrooms throughout Nashville each year, providing learning tools for thousands of public school students, system-wide. The PENCIL Foundation and LP PENCIL Box are so very grateful for the support the Tennessee Titans have offered toward our mission and the missions of each charity of whom benefited from these events." Alexis Hicks, Program Assistant, LP Pencil Box
YWCA "Undie Sunday" Undergarment Drive (9/19/10 Titans vs. Pittsburgh Steelers):
Fans showed immense support for the YWCA Undergarment Drive. This marked the third year that the team partnered with the YWCA and it was a huge success, Undergarments for women and children were collected for the YWCA Weaver Domestic Violence Shelter. For more information about the YWCA, log on to their website at www.ywcanashville.org.
"Our ongoing relationship with the Titans helps the YWCA raise awareness about domestic violence in Middle Tennessee. The Tennessee Titans help us provide safety and healing to women and children who are leaving violent homes." Pat Shea, YWCA CEO
AT&T Cell Phone Drive (10/3/10 Titans vs. Denver Broncos):
AT&T teamed with the Titans for the Seventh annual cell phone drive, which benefited the "Cell Phones for Soldiers" program, a joint initiative to help troops stationed overseas call their loved ones back home. Fans were asked to bring unused cell phones and parts to the game to be recycled for cash to donate to the program. This year our great Titans fans donated 541 phones, with an estimated value of $2705. These phones will be put to great use in connecting families with love ones serving overseas. For more information about Cell Phones for Soldiers please log onto www.cellphonesforsoldiers.com.
Titans Foundation Coat Drive (10/24/10 Titans vs. Philadelphia Eagles):
Fans showed tremendous support once again and more than 26,000 coats have been donated to more than 33 different organizations during the 12-year history of this drive. Liv2Giv Foundation volunteers helped collect coats gameday. As the result of incredible support from gracious fans, the Titans Foundation received approximately 2400 donated coats during the 2010 drive.
"Our Titans Foundation coat drive meets a key basic need for many of our neighbors who may be facing the upcoming cold winter months without a warm coat! We have worked with 10 or more non-profits each year to distribute thousands of coats each year and I'm grateful to Titans fans for showing their support of this drive." — **K.S. "Bud" Adams, Jr., Titans Owner
Second Harvest Food Drive (11/21/10 Titans vs. Washington Redskins):
Second Harvest Food Bank of Middle Tennessee benefited from our great fans for the eleventh consecutive year when our fans brought non-perishable food items to our game last fall. The eleven-year total for the drive has raised over a quarter million pounds of food to help combat hunger facing thousands of our neighbors each year. In the 2010 season, our wonderful Titan fans donated 19,793 pounds of food, which is approximately 15,463 meals for hungry men, women, and children in middle Tennessee. If you would like more information about Second Harvest Food Bank or would like to make a donation, please visit www.secondharvestmidtn.org.
"We are incredibly grateful for our partnership with the Titans- not only because of the game day charity drives, but also for the support we receive from the entire Titan's community throughout the years". –Heidi Tieslau, Food and Fund Drive Manager
A comment to Titans fans:
"On behalf of Second Harvest and thousands of hungry people in Middle Tennessee: 'Thank you' for the years and years of support. Every donation dropped off during the Titan's Food Drives ends up in the hands of someone in need. These donations have helped provide over 140,990 meals to the people that we serve. We cannot fulfill our mission of feeding hungry people without your donors and volunteers – Thank you. – Heidi Tieslau, Food and Fund Drive Manager
Here is also a great video composed by a Second Harvest volunteer chronicling this year's gameday charity drive.*http://vimeo.com/17078231*
U.S. Marine Corps Reserve Toys for Tots Drive (12/5/10 Titans vs. Jacksonville Jaguars):
Titans' fans have now donated a tremendous amount of toys during the 12 years of the team's annual Marine Corps Toys for Tots campaign. The Toys for Tot campaign is the longest-running gameday campaign for the team and is a national program for the U.S. Marine Corps Reserve. Since 2007 alone, Titans' fans have donated close to 15,000 toys with an estimated worth of $17,388, making a lot of children happy during a financially tough holiday season.
For more information, visit www.toysfortots.org.
"As the Toys for Tots coordinator for Middle Tennessee I would like to say that all of the Tennessee Titans fans deserve an enormous amount of thanks for what they do for their local community every year. It is amazing to see all of the fans come to the game day drive with their toys and smiles. Please know that the children that receive the donated toys share those smiles with you. Without the generous donations of these kind hearted people, there would not be Toys for Tots program. Every child deserves a little Christmas, and the Titans fans make that happen for thousands of children each year. Thank you!" - GySgt David C. Carrier
Soles4Souls Shoe Drive (12/19/10 Titans vs. Houston Texans):
For the fourth consecutive year, Titans fans brought "gently worn" shoes to the game to benefit Soles4Souls. Their research estimates that Americans have approximately 1.5 billion pairs of unworn shoes in their closet and their mission is to secure shoes for those in need across the globe. Titans' fans were very supportive of this drive and since 2007 Titans' fans have donated over 12,000 pairs of shoes. Visit www.giveshoes.org for more information.
*"This has been such a great experience for us. We have been able to not only interact with the Nashville and Titans community by collecting shoes, but it has also allowed us to distribute even more shoes in the Nashville area." *
– Mehgan Heaton, Events & Marketing
