BALTIMORE RAVENS COMMUNITY QUARTERBACK AWARD
The Baltimore Ravens have selected their 2021 Community Quarterback Award recipients. Funded by the NFL Foundation, the Ravens Foundation, Inc. and T. Rowe Price, the award honors individuals who exhibit leadership, dedication and commitment to bettering their local communities. Recognizing the urgent need among many nonprofits and community heroes during the COVID-19 pandemic, T. Rowe Price partnered with the Ravens to honor five recipients whose volunteer efforts have strengthened our community over the past two years.
The honorees will be recognized at M&T Bank Stadium on Sunday, Jan. 9, when the Ravens host the Pittsburgh Steelers. Each Community Quarterback winner will receive complimentary tickets to the game, a personalized Ravens jersey, a T. Rowe Price giveaway and a $2,500 grant to help aid their respective nonprofit organization.
2021 Community Quarterback Winners:
Heber Brown III – The Black Church Food Security Network
In 2015, Rev. Dr. Heber Brown III – Senior Pastor of Pleasant Hope Baptist Church in Baltimore – created the Black Church Food Security Network, which is a sustainable food systems program powered by 70 Black churches working with Black farmers and small business owners. The network grows fresh produce to distribute at no charge to Baltimore communities that are currently identified as food deserts. Since 2015, Brown averages 50 volunteers per week, organizing, gardening, fundraising and distributing over 70,000 pounds of fresh fruits and vegetables. In April of 2020, Brown also created a Saturday YouTube show to teach the art and science of growing and preserving your own fruits and vegetables.
Grace Callwood – We Cancerve Movement, Inc.
At seven years old, Callwood created We Cancerve Movement, Inc., a nonprofit founded with the goal of bringing happiness to homeless, sick and foster youth. Since the organization was founded in 2012, alongside her all-youth board of advisors, We Cancerve Movement, Inc. has reached more than 25,000 children from 10 hospitals, 10 homeless shelters, 10 Title I schools, six local feeding ministries, three foster care group homes and three orphanages (including two in Africa). In 2015, We Cancerve created Camp Happy, a free summer enrichment day camp for homeless children. In 2016, Callwood oversaw the creation of We Cancerve's La Magnifique Boutique, a two-room, free-of-charge, full-service shop that offers shoes, clothes and jewelry for work and worship for teen girls living in a foster care group in Bel Air, MD. Lastly, in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Callwood partnered with Harford County Public Library System and opened the We Cancerve Little Libraries in low-income housing projects.
Christopher Dipnarine – 4MYCITY Inc
With a primary focus on the importance of environmental sustainability in relation to food waste, 4MYCITY Inc. was created with the goal of improving food insecurity in the Baltimore community. What once started with Dipnarine driving around Baltimore collecting food to deliver to families facing food insecurity quickly turned into a food rescue and environmental sustainability program that has distributed over 122 million pounds of food to local families. Since the organization was established in 2018, through Dipnarine's leadership, 4MYCity Inc. has donated an estimated 101 million meals, 20,000 Thanksgiving turkeys, 15,000 book bags filled with school supplies and 25,000 toys given out to kids for the holidays.Â
Sandie Nagel – Weekend Backpacks for Homeless Kids, Inc.
In March of 2015, alongside her late husband Fred Nagel, Sandie created Weekend Backpacks at her dining room table while packing 18 bags filled with healthy food to be distributed to Baltimore City youth facing food insecurity. While Baltimore City schoolchildren are provided with free breakfast and lunch, many students suffer from food insecurity when school is not in session. Through Fred and Sandie's vision, Weekend Backpacks provides child-friendly, nutritious food directly to children in need each weekend. Five years after its inception, Weekend Backpacks has blossomed into a certified nonprofit that served 30 schools with an average of 660 bags per week. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the demand increased to over 1,100 bags per week. Additionally, Weekend Backpacks began delivering bags throughout the summer, adding four summer camps. Currently, Weekend Backpacks delivers 1,200 bags of food per week, the equivalent to nearly 22,00 meals to 37 Baltimore City Schools.
Julie Traut – Christian Youth Athletics
Founded in 1978, Christian Youth Athletics provides opportunities for youth, ages 4-13 to participate in recreational and competitive athletic programs in a positive environment. During the height of the pandemic, Christian Youth Athletics was able to operate baseball, softball and soccer seasons through Traut's guidance and leadership. In addition to her work with Christian Youth Athletics, Traut serves as the director for several nonprofit organizations that serve local youth families who are food insecure and young women who are homeless and facing a crisis pregnancy. Finally, Traut serves as the director of Camp Rock, a youth camp that features a character development program and numerous recreational activities; as well as the community promotions liaisons for Adopt-a-Block, an organization that feeds over 40,000 food insecure individuals monthly and has built 18 homes for families who have never owned a home of their own. When she is not volunteering in her numerous capacities, Traut is the principal of Rock Church Academy in Baltimore County, a non-public childcare center and day school for youth in grades Pre-K through fifth.
About the Ravens Foundation, Inc.
The Ravens Foundation is committed to improving, encouraging and enabling the healthy development of youth in the Baltimore area, as well as other parts of the state of Maryland. The foundation focuses on programs that help youth, and in some cases their families, with various needs, including housing, hunger, education, athletics and mentoring.
Please visit www.BaltimoreRavens.com/community for more information.
About T. Rowe Price
Founded in 1937, Baltimore-based T. Rowe Price Group, Inc. is a global investment management organization with $1.63 trillion in assets under management as of November 30, 2021. The organization provides a broad array of mutual funds, subadvisory services, and separate account management for individual and institutional investors, retirement plans, and financial intermediaries. The company also offers a variety of sophisticated investment planning and guidance tools. T. Rowe Price's disciplined, risk-aware investment approach focuses on diversification, style consistency, and fundamental research. For more information, visit troweprice.com or our Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn, Instagram, and Facebook sites.
CONTACT
Kelly Tallant
Baltimore Ravens Community Relations
410.701.4154
Heather McDonold
_T. Rowe Price Public Relations      _
443-834-4132
