2019-2020 Community Report CommunityReport-2019-2020 | Page 26

My Cause My Cleats Design
Features Local Kids
When Jaguars S Jarrod Wilson stepped on the field to face the
Chargers on Sunday, Dec. 8 at TIAA Bank Field, he wasn’t alone.
His new friends Ayianna, Ka’Mari, Joey, Jarael, and Zion, to name
a few, were along for the ride.
Jarrod participated in the NFL’s My Cause My Cleats campaign
alongside 58 other members of the Jaguars roster. The annual
collaboration between the NFL and players allows athletes around
the league to showcase a charitable cause of their choosing
through artistically designed shoes to be worn in-game.
Jarrod selected Jacksonville’s own Wolfson Children’s Hospital
as his cause, and on Tuesday, Dec. 3, he brought his cleats to
patients on its fourth floor to put the finishing touches on the
rainbow splatter paint design: the signatures of kids who would
be watching from the hospital that Sunday.
Nine-year-old Logan was the first to sign Jarrod’s cleats, and the
two wasted no time chatting about their favorite video games. For
Logan, being in the hospital has its ups and downs.
“It’s fun because the food is good,” Logan said. “You get treated
good, but the hard part is when you do all the things and you do it
over and over, it gets boring.”
The visit from Jarrod and his longtime girlfriend, Desaray, cheered
Logan right up. When asked to describe his feelings upon meeting
the Jaguars starting safety, Logan said “Happy. Fantastic. Every
happy thing!”
Jarrod is in the beginning stages of launching the Jarrod Wilson
Foundation with child health and wellness being its primary focus.
Last offseason, he hosted his first football camp in his hometown of
Akron, Ohio. He also hosted a Thanksgiving dinner for women and
children affected by domestic violence. This hospital visit to collect
signatures was his fourth over the last year.
“It’s just very unfortunate for these families and these children,”
said Jarrod. “Hopefully I can just be a glimpse of light that day that
just turns their day from bad to good. You never know the situation
walking into the room, what they’ve been through just throughout
this day alone, let alone weeks. I’m just trying to bring some light
into their day.”
All-in-all, nearly a dozen signatures were added to Jarrod’s custom
cleats for the Jaguars matchup against the Chargers. Jarrod hopes
his My Cause My Cleats partnership with Wolfson is the first of many
more community partnerships to come both in Jacksonville and
Akron.
“I know God has blessed me to be in this position, and it’s not
only about what I do on the field,” said Jarrod. “I think it’s more
important what I do off the field and just giving back. I’m only one
of 7.6 billion people out here in the world. I’m just trying to help
the world as best I can, one day at a time.”