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The Little Falls Mounties have a new toy to play with at football practice courtesy of a benefactor almost 3,000 miles away.
San Diego Chargers defensive back Steve Gregory has developed a long distance relationship with the program and donated a blocking sled to the Mounties through his foundation, the SG Squad, with financial assistance from the National Football League.
“Growing up I never had an opportunity to be hands-on with an NFL player,” Gregory said. “I wanted to do that, do something to give younger kids a role model and help steer them in the right direction.”
Gregory, a native New Yorker from Staten Island and a 2005 Syracuse University graduate, has developed a relationship with the Little Falls school district and football program through Rosanne Geraty, a native of the city whose brother Dick is an assistant on first-year coach Bryan Shepardson’s staff. Rosanne Geraty’s Orange athletic career overlapped with Gregory’s when she played field hockey at Syracuse and she now lives on the West Coast where she helps run the SG Squad.
“We got together with the coaches (after Gregory spoke to the Mounties during a visit to the area in the summer) and decided what they really needed was some new equipment,” Rosanne Geraty said. Gregory’s foundation put up $2,000 which was matched by the NFL and the combined donation covered the cost of the new sled along with gloves for Little Falls’ linemen and SG Squad T-shirts for the players.
The matching donation came through an NFL program in which the league assists players in donating football equipment for scholastic and youth programs.
“It was a chance to help the school out and help the program out,” said Gregory who called the gift to Little Falls his “first really big donation to a school.”
“I’d like to do more,” he said, “but we’ve got some more fund-raising to do.”
The SG Squad is set up through Athletes for Education, a charitable foundation based in San Diego that works with several current and former Chargers, as well as a variety of celebrities that includes former Major League Baseball star Kevin Mitchell, Olympic hurdler Tonie Campbell, mixed martial artist Brandon Vera and Alana Ethridge from the television game show “Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader?” Steven Haynes started Athletes for Education and enlisted the help of athletes, entertainers and politicians to reach low-income and at-risk youth through mentioning programs teaching the value of education and motivating them to succeed in life.
The Little Falls Mounties have a new toy to play with at football practice courtesy of a benefactor almost 3,000 miles away.
San Diego Chargers defensive back Steve Gregory has developed a long distance relationship with the program and donated a blocking sled to the Mounties through his foundation, the SG Squad, with financial assistance from the National Football League.
“Growing up I never had an opportunity to be hands-on with an NFL player,” Gregory said. “I wanted to do that, do something to give younger kids a role model and help steer them in the right direction.”
Gregory, a native New Yorker from Staten Island and a 2005 Syracuse University graduate, has developed a relationship with the Little Falls school district and football program through Rosanne Geraty, a native of the city whose brother Dick is an assistant on first-year coach Bryan Shepardson’s staff. Rosanne Geraty’s Orange athletic career overlapped with Gregory’s when she played field hockey at Syracuse and she now lives on the West Coast where she helps run the SG Squad.
“We got together with the coaches (after Gregory spoke to the Mounties during a visit to the area in the summer) and decided what they really needed was some new equipment,” Rosanne Geraty said. Gregory’s foundation put up $2,000 which was matched by the NFL and the combined donation covered the cost of the new sled along with gloves for Little Falls’ linemen and SG Squad T-shirts for the players.
The matching donation came through an NFL program in which the league assists players in donating football equipment for scholastic and youth programs.
“It was a chance to help the school out and help the program out,” said Gregory who called the gift to Little Falls his “first really big donation to a school.”
“I’d like to do more,” he said, “but we’ve got some more fund-raising to do.”
The SG Squad is set up through Athletes for Education, a charitable foundation based in San Diego that works with several current and former Chargers, as well as a variety of celebrities that includes former Major League Baseball star Kevin Mitchell, Olympic hurdler Tonie Campbell, mixed martial artist Brandon Vera and Alana Ethridge from the television game show “Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader?” Steven Haynes started Athletes for Education and enlisted the help of athletes, entertainers and politicians to reach low-income and at-risk youth through mentioning programs teaching the value of education and motivating them to succeed in life.
