The Pro Bowl Special Teams Player Joins Compassion International’s Fill The Stadium to Aid Desperate Children Suffering Through COVID-19
COLORADO SPRINGS, COLO. – New England’s football season may have ended, but Pro Bowl special teams player, Matthew Slater, is still very busy these days with Compassion International’s standout effort to help children around the world, throughFill The Stadium. Slater, who has been to the Pro Bowl nine times, hopes to pursue seminary study in his post-football career. He joins teammates Devin and Jason McCourty and several other athletes and leaders aiding children in the developing world who are suffering during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Fill The Stadium has a clear goal: to provide food and life-saving aid to 70,000 children in Compassion International’s programs who missed out on relief this year due to gaps of support created by the COVID-19 crisis. The target of 70,000 is the average capacity of pro-football stadiums in America.
Professional athletes and their spouses, like Matthew Slater, have committed their own donations and used their influence to mobilize others to raise more than $11 million and have filled more than 22,000 seats towards their goal of helping 70,000 children. Fill The Stadium leaders hope that fans who normally would have spent money on professional sports games this year—but couldn’t—choose instead to support underprivileged kids and their families.
“Unfortunately, the effects of this virus will be felt hardest in the developing world.” Slater said. “Imagine being a child right now… living in poverty and not knowing what your future may hold. It is our goal to support 70,000 kids in this very situation. That is why my family and I have teamed up with Compassion International.”
The Fill The Stadium team notes that $500—approximately the same amount most Americans would spend for a family of four to attend a pro-football game—will help provide 12 months of life saving food, nutritional supplements, hygiene essentials, and COVID-19 medical screenings for children and families in crisis. So far, the group has “filled” over 22,000 seats— on their way to the goal of helping 70,000 children.
Fill The Stadium team leaders—Santiago “Jimmy” Mellado, CEO and president of Compassion International, and Steve Stenstrom, president of Pro Athletes Outreach—have already received a strong assist from more than 40 athletes and leaders.
Joining Slater and Mellado in leadership roles for Fill The Stadium efforts are such standout professional athletes as Nick Foles, professional football MVP quarterback; Alyssa Naeher of the U.S. Women’s National Soccer Team; Carson Palmer, former professional quarterback; Chris Davis, first baseman of the Baltimore Orioles; Devin and Jason McCourty, defensive backs of New England; Nate Solder of the New York Giants; Nick Ahmed of the Arizona Diamondbacks; Jaccob Slavin of the Carolina Hurricanes; Brock Huard, former professional quarterback, and many others.
“We are all experiencing the reality of empty stadiums,” says the Fill The Stadium team. It’s why this effort so desperately needs a caring, prayerful and thoughtful community to join together in this needed relief.
To learn more, visit the Fill The Stadium website, and Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.