For Davon Godchaux, his two-year extension with New England doesn't exclude the Blue Hills Boys & Girls Club in Dorchester.
The Patriots defensive lineman first visited the club last season – his first with the team – to hand out backpacks and get to know his new community. He returned for a second-annual Back to School event Tuesday, keeping the relationship strong.
"Back in the day, it could have been pretty hard for me to find a backpack, so to give away free backpacks to the kids and see their faces and seeing the school supplies in there for them is pretty priceless," Godchaux said.
"It was pretty awesome just getting back out there in the community."
Being the fashion aficionado he is, Godchaux tapped Sprayground, the premium streetwear travel brand, to hook the kids up with backpacks stuffed with school supplies.
The giveaway was just one initiative he planned through the Godchaux Foundation, a non-profit he started while playing for the Miami Dolphins and brought up north.
Through his charitable endeavors, Godchaux's goal is to help kids with mentorship and focus on well-being, education, and fighting childhood obesity.
"Academics are important for us. Promoting healthy lifestyles is very important to us," Rivas said of the Boys & Girls Club. "We actually have a group of a committee that works on providing healthy lifestyle options and activities for some of the members here at the club. Then of course, athletics as well. So we kind of encompass everything that he's kind of about and we are able to bring it together for him."
After handing out backpacks, Godchaux got to see the work the Boys and Girls Club does for himself, touring the gymnasium, fitness center, recording studio, teen center, and other extracurricular spaces.
With a handful of football players at the after-school program, he even dished out some tips on what a defensive lineman looks for from an opposing running back before the snap.
"For Davon to the back here means the world to them," Rivas said.
"A lot of these kids aspire to be where he's at. A lot of these kids need that type of support, they need to be exposed to certain individuals like himself -- who has been able to accomplish so much. So whenever you have kids in the building that are able to connect the dots to what some of them are looking forward to, it makes a big difference. It just motivates them, gets them inspired, and keeps them going."
