Ravens Name 2014 Community Quarterback Award Winners
The Baltimore Ravens have selected three outstanding community volunteers as their 2014 Community Quarterback Award recipients. Funded by NFL Charities and the Ravens Foundation, Inc., the Community Quarterback Award recognizes individuals who exhibit leadership, dedication and commitment to bettering their local communities.
The three honorees will be honored at M&T Bank Stadium this Sunday (11/30), when the Ravens host the San Diego Chargers. Each Community Quarterback will receive tickets for himself/herself and a guest, Ravens memorabilia and merchandise, and a $3,500 grant to better their respective nonprofit organization. All three recipients will be recognized on the field during the game. The 2014 Community Quarterbacks and their accomplishments are listed below:
Seth Franz: Volunteering Untapped
Volunteering Untapped, founded by Franz in 2013, strives to meet the increasing demand for volunteers among Baltimore's countless non-profit organizations with young professionals who look to give back to their community. After each outing, the group of volunteers gathers at a different local restaurant to discuss their volunteer experience and network with other volunteers. Franz recognizes that while Volunteering Untapped's impact is not seen in one specific non-profit, the impact can be found in the individuals who serve. "My program is a pebble dropped in the pond of every participating volunteer, and I take great pride in watching the ripple," Franz said. Volunteers have worked with organizations such as the Baltimore Tree Trust, Playworks Maryland, the Maryland Food Bank and the Kennedy Krieger Institute. For his dedication to volunteerism in Baltimore, Franz has been accepted as a member of the Baltimore hub of exclusive Global Shapers Community.
Asma Hanif: Muslimat Al-Nisaa
Since its inception in 1987, Muslimat Al-Nisaa continues to offer a holistic approach to serving marginalized communities of Baltimore. Its mission is to provide health, education, shelter and other social services to the underserved population in general, and to Muslim women and children in particular. The organization is based on the principle that every woman, man and child has a right to receive quality care regardless of race, creed or socio-economic status. As a result of her work as an advanced nurse practitioner, Hanif witnessed religious discrimination while treating sexual assault and domestic violence cases in the female Muslim population of Baltimore. In 2007, she began opening her home to help these women and their children. Her home has been converted into a shelter and has grown over the past seven years to include job training and educational programs for shelter residents, feeding the homeless on the streets through their "Chili Bowl Sunday" program, as well as providing free physicals to those individuals wishing to participate in the Special Olympics. For her continued dedication, Hanif was invited to be a panelist on and is still a current member of the Governor of Maryland's Domestic Violence Community Initiative. In January, she was invited to speak at the United States Attorney Office's "Protecting Our Diversity" forum on violence and hate crimes.
Katie Peiffer: Arundel House of Hope
Arundel House of Hope (AHOH) serves and supports the homeless population of Anne Arundel County. Since joining the organization as a volunteer and board member in 2006, Peiffer has been an integral part of Arundel House of Hope's team. As an established Baltimore attorney, Peiffer has provided her legal skills and guidance to the organization's goal of reducing homelessness in Baltimore by reviewing and preparing contracts for AHOH's housing program. For the past eight years, she has served as the sponsorship chair for AHOH's annual fundraising event, Bid for Hope. In July of this past year, Peiffer joined the organization full-time as their director of development.
