by David Chapman
Staff Writer
Instead of giving traditional Christmas cards to their fans this holiday season, the Jaguars organization gave back to area needy families with a $25,000 donation to Second Harvest on behalf of those fans.
The donation, combined with a $10,000 Winn-Dixie partnership and food at-cost, covered the cost of 2,000 holiday meal boxes – filled with traditional Christmas dinner fare such as mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, stuffing, corn, green beans and others. Jaguars owners Wayne and Delores Weaver, Jaguar players and officials from both Winn-Dixie and Second Harvest personally loaded the cars of 100 such families Monday during an event at the NFL Youth Education Town (YET) in Brentwood. Built in Super Bowl host cities, the center is associated with the Boys & Girls Club and hosts after-school programming to more than 100 children daily.
“This is a great community effort,” said Ariane Person, NFL YET unit director. “Many of our families (who use the center) make less than $18,000 a year and food doesn’t always come first. For everyone to come together like this, it truly is a blessing.”
The Jaguars donation was on behalf of the fans, said Wayne Weaver, and is part of the greater community effort to help the less fortunate, especially in light of a down economy that’s affected so many families.
“It’s a nice way to celebrate the holidays in a different way,” said Weaver. “We felt it would make a difference.”
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