By Fred Seely
Editorial Director
Add another event to your Super Bowl week - the Athletes in Action Breakfast.
It’s one of the largest public-access events and its director, Terry Bortz, visited the Rotary Club of Jacksonville Monday to tell its story and recruit sponsors.
The breakfast will be Saturday, Feb. 5, the day before the Super Bowl. It’s from 8-10 a.m. and probably will be at the Adam’s Mark.
“It’s an opportunity for people to be part of the week,” said Bortz, who is directing her 13th breakfast. “We had almost 2,000 this year in Houston. Every year it gets bigger.”
Bortz’s mission was to interest local business leaders - and Monday’s Rotary Club audience at the Omni was full of them - to step forward for commitments ranging from the $40,000 “Host Sponsor” naming rights to $1,500 for a table of 10.
The breakfast includes the Bart Starr Award, named for the Green Bay Packer quarterback who was the Most Valuable Player of the first two Super Bowls. It is awarded to the player chosen by his peers to exemplify “outstanding character and leadership in the home, on the field and in the community,” according to Bortz.
“Players vote on this at the same time that they vote on players for the Pro Bowl,” she said. “This is a very prestigious award. To have the vote at the same time shows the National Football League’s commitment to this.”
Last year’s winner was Tampa Bay linebacker Derrick Brooks, who runs an extensive youth program in the Tampa Bay area.
The program also will include a special presentation by NFL Films and faith-based speeches by NFL players and coaches. There will be a keynote speaker as well as musical entertainment.
Athletes in Action is a national Christian organization that works with high school college and professional teams. Bortz said there were over 500 employees around the world.
A Cincinnati native and the mother of three, she works on the breakfast year-round.
“It’s a big, expensive event.” She said. “It only raises about $40,000 each year because of the costs involved, and the money we raise goes to get the next breakfast going. It’s a means of spreading the faith.”
The Houston breakfast was the largest ever and one of the local breakfast committeemen, Bill Gay of W.W. Gay Mechanical Contractors, said he hopes to top the “almost 2,000” that Bortz said attended in Houston.
Others on the local committee are banker Bennett Brown, paper company yexecut9ive Mac McGehee and publicist Robin Wilson.
The Jaguars have endorsed the breakfast and were represented Monday by communications director Dan Edwards.