Pro Football HOFer DAN MARINO and members of the NHL Panthers yesterday joined a group at BB&T Center to "load up almost two dozen trucks" of supplies which would "soon head south toward the Florida Keys" for those affected by Hurricane Irma. The Panthers "collected over 80 palettes worth of supplies such as dry goods, bottled water and clothing by holding relief drives at their arena and training facility." The Panthers and JetBlue "teamed up for a free food truck event last week which handed out close to 20,000 meals with no strings attached" (MIAMI HERALD, 9/20). Employees from the Magic, NBA G League Lakeland Magic and ECHL Orlando Solar Bears spent about an hour yesterday "packing thousands of meals for children impacted" by Irma. The group included Magic Chair DAN DEVOS and CEO ALEX MARTINS (ORLANDO SENTINEL, 9/20).
ACTIONS MATCHING WORDS: Eagles DE CHRIS LONG will "donate his first six game checks of the season to fund a pair of seven-year scholarships to middle school students in his hometown of Charlottesville, Va." The scholarships will be "administered by Long’s alma mater, St. Anne’s-Belfield School, which will award them to two members of the Boys & Girls Club of Central Virginia." Long in a statement said that the white supremacy marches held in Charlottesville during the summer "spurred him and his wife MEGAN to set up the scholarships" (PHILLY.com, 9/19).
GIVING BACK: Canadiens LW JONATHAN DROUIN has made a donation to the Fondation du Centre hospitalier de l’Université de Montréal (CHUM) of $500,000 (all figures C) spread out "over the next 10 years." He will also work with CHUM to help raise another $5M (MONTREAL GAZETTE, 9/20). Drouin's contribution is "substantial," and his intention to "get other people involved in the cause is just as important" (SPORTSNET.ca, 9/19).
