Philanthropy
Wilson has been an active philanthropist both within his community and on a national scale to improve education for today's youth. In 2008, Wilson received the President's Volunteer Service Award, the highest service honor awarded by the White House. The following year he founded his own foundation, the George Wilson S.A.F.E.T.Y. Foundation that aims to educate today's youth no matter what their background. Wilson has received the Buffalo Bills Walter Payton Man of the Year Award twice, once in 2009 and then again in 2011.
Recently, Wilson has increased his work with United Way. He became the regional Live United spokesperson for United Way of Buffalo and Erie County in 2010. He also serves as the Buffalo Bills representative for United Way Worldwide Team NFL, to recruit one million volunteer readers, tutors and mentors and cut the high school dropout rate in half by 2018.
In his native Paducah, Kentucky, Wilson also hosts an annual Summer SportsFest that benefits his former high school. He’s also headed up a Life Skills Camping Retreat in Nashville to teach leadership, self-esteem and responsibility to youth. Wilson has also worked with Toys for Tots, and helped provide over 5,000 donations and gifts for families in his hometown.
The “George’s Jungle” program is another initiative where Wilson personally donates 20 season tickets and meal vouchers to Buffalo Public High School students. For the first time in 2011, George served as a spokesperson for the Buffalo Bills Kids Escaping Drugs Campaign. With his teammates, Wilson assisted in helping raise over $8,000 for the organization. In addition, Wilson also mentored a group for 15 young men from a local community center in Buffalo through the “That’s Life” Program in 2009 and still has a strong bond with each one of the boys. Wilson has also participated in the Night out with the Bills which is put on by the Buffalo Pro Ministry Athletes in Action. The players in attendance shared stories about their views on faith, signed autographs and posed for pictures with over 700 members of the Buffalo Community. Wilson was also the spokesman for the American Red Cross Blood Drives at Ralph Wilson Stadium in September and November 2010. With the help of George and the teams support, over 500 units of blood were collected, ultimately saving over 1,500 lives.
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Famous quotes containing the word philanthropy:
“I shall not be forward to think him mistaken in his method who quickest succeeds to liberate the slave. I speak for the slave when I say that I prefer the philanthropy of Captain Brown to that philanthropy which neither shoots me nor liberates me.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“... the hey-day of a woman’s life is on the shady side of fifty, when the vital forces heretofore expended in other ways are garnered in the brain, when their thoughts and sentiments flow out in broader channels, when philanthropy takes the place of family selfishness, and when from the depths of poverty and suffering the wail of humanity grows as pathetic to their ears as once was the cry of their own children.”
—Elizabeth Cady Stanton (1815–1902)
“Almost every man we meet requires some civility,—requires to be humored; he has some fame, some talent, some whim of religion or philanthropy in his head that is not to be questioned, and which spoils all conversation with him. But a friend is a sane man who exercises not my ingenuity, but me.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)