The New England Patriots Charitable Foundation continued the season-long "Celebrate Volunteerism" campaign with special weekly focuses on "Military and Veteran Volunteerism," (Nov. 6-12) and "Youth Sports Volunteerism" (Nov. 13-19).
The Foundation teamed with Raytheon Company and Carepacks for the week of Nov. 6 for Military and Veterans Volunteerism. To kick off this focus, the Patriots celebrated Veterans Day at the Nov. 6 home game against the Giants with several honorary activities. In a pregame ceremony, active members representing each branch of the military joined veterans and Patriots cheerleaders to display three large American flags across the field of Gillette Stadium. VFW post 1822 from Plymouth, Mass. presented the colors and the ceremonies featured a flyover and a moment of silence for Steven Gutowski, a native of Plymouth and former Patriots game day employee who was killed in combat in Afghanistan.
As part of Patriots Community Tuesdays and Military and Veterans volunteerism week, Mark Anderson, Jermaine Cunningham and Zoltan Mesko honored more than 200 veterans at the Edith Nourse Rogers Memorial Veterans Hospital in Bedford on Nov. 8. During the visit Patriots players participated in a question and answer session and visited disabled veterans who were not physically able to attend the program.
During the week of Nov. 13, the Foundation teamed with the New England Revolution, Metro Lacrosse, Squash Busters and Special Olympics Massachusetts to celebrate "Youth Sports Volunteerism." Patriots Gary Guyton, Andre Carter, Jeff Tarpinian as well as Revolution players Shalrie Joseph, Kevin Alston, Darrius Barnes, Tim Murray and Chris Tierney spent the afternoon learning and playing squash and lacrosse with nearly 40 youth from Massachusetts nonprofits.
With this special focus on volunteerism, the Kraft family and the Foundation will honor Myra Kraft's lifetime commitment to philanthropy and charitable services. For more information, to pledge volunteer hours, nominate a "Patriots Difference Maker of the Week," to submit photos of volunteer work or to participate in an upcoming collection drive visit www.patriots.com/community.
