The safety is recovering at a Buffalo hospital, where he was taken a week after collapsing at Cincinnati Stadium. It is the money that he received in the campaign that he created to donate toys.
The story of Damar Hamlin, who shocked the world eight days ago by suffering a cardiac arrest in the middle of a NFL football regular season game, adds positive chapters day by day. And while he is recovering in a Buffalo hospital, where he was transferred after the collapse at the Cincinnati stadium, he decides what to do with the $8.6 million he received in campaign donations, which before last Monday he had the goal of raising ‘barely’ $2,500 to buy toys.
The Bills safety intends to support young people with education and sports with what was generated in his ‘GoFundMe’, which unexpectedly began to multiply funds.
He will also use the proceeds from a new “Did We Win?” T-shirt. (Did we win?) And the hands in the shape of a heart, to raise money for the Cincinnati trauma hospital where he was admitted after being revived on the field of play.
The 24-year-old teamed up with The Giving Back Fund, a non-profit association that helps athletes and celebrities manage their donations, to organize The Chasing M’s Foundation charity fund. GoFundMe representatives informed the international agency AP that the crowdfunding platform will soon transfer the money it received from Hamlin.
“We are working as a team to facilitate the transfer as soon as it is practical”indicó Giving Back Fund.
Hamlin’s injury and recovery created a network of solidarity in the football community, with donations from fans and players honoring Hamlin, who responded to all the charity displays on Twitter.
The largest public donation as of Tuesday was $33,333 and came from ADCO Electrical Corp in New York.
Similarly, Carl Fochler donated $25,003 on behalf of the sustainable dry cleaning company Sheets Laundry Club. Fochler stayed up late waiting for an update on Hamlin’s health. The next day he searched for news online and saw a video of Hamlin talking about his founding.
“I knew at that moment that it was something we had to do”he indicated, after discussing it with his partner.
He pointed to a Twitter message in which Hamlin said he’d rather be running in the tunnel at the start of the game with his teammates, but said instead, “God is using you in a different way”.
“When he wakes up and he’s Damar again and he sees the $8 million, he’s going to have a lot of planning to do and there’s going to be good vibes everywhere,” Fochler began.
Despite his 24 years, Hamlin is already a man seasoned in crashesalthough none had had as serious consequences as the one that led to the suspension of the match between the Bills and the Bengals with six minutes remaining in the first quarter, when the locals prevailed 7-3.
Born on March 24, 1998 in McKees Rocks, a small town of less than 6,000 inhabitants on the outskirts of Pittsburgh and on the banks of the Ohio River, he began his career in the sport of oval ball as soon as he began high school at Pittsburgh Central. Catholic.
Although during high school he was also a member of the basketball and athletics teams, his skills for that sport that Americans call dry “football” (the one that Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo or Neymar practice is “soccer”) opened the doors for him to Arrive at the University of Pittsburgh in 2016 and there take a Bachelor’s degree in Communication and also a Specialization in Sociology, but, above all, represent the Panthers in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) championship.
Hamlin is also the founder and owner of Chasing M’s, a company dedicated to the production and marketing of clothing. The brand, as he explains on his website, is aimed at “those who have a dream and pursue it, those who want something more and cannot settle for being one of the crowd.” Through Chasing M’s, the Bills safety has donated clothing to the Sto-Rox School District, a high school in his native McKees Rocks.
