Charity and Volunteer Activities
Drew Brees is active in a number of charitable activities. In New Orleans, he has become (in the words of a 2010 Sports Illustrated profile) "an athlete as adored and appreciated as any in an American city today". When Sports Illustrated selected him for the 2010 Sportsman of the Year award, it said the award was "or not only leading the New Orleans Saints to the first Super Bowl title in the franchise's history, but also for helping lead the city of New Orleans' rebirth after the tragedy of Hurricane Katrina".
Brees has been involved in Hurricane Katrina recovery. Drew and Brittany’s Brees Dream Foundation announced a partnership in 2007 with international children’s charity Operation Kids, to rebuild and restore and recreate academic and athletic facilities, parks and playgrounds, after-school programs, mentoring programs for the intellectually disabled, neighborhood revitalization projects and child care facilities in New Orleans. In addition Drew sponsors the Rebuilding thru Brotherhood program to invite fellow Sigma Chi members to the New Orleans community to build homes with the Habitat for Humanity.
Brees has acquired the nickname "Breesus" among Saints fans.
Brees visited the Guantanamo Bay detention camp on a USO tour in late June 2009. Following his return, Brees was quoted as stating that Guantanamo captives were being treated ten times better than convicts in U.S. prisons.
In February 2008, Brees signed a promotional deal with Chili's Grill & Bar to promote the chain's new line of hamburgers. The promotion helped raise money for charity. In June 2008, Brees participated in the Pro Sports Team Challenge, a competition for pro athletes to help raise money for charities. The charity Brees played for was Operation Kids.
On February 18, 2007, Brees was honored by the Krewe of Bacchus, a New Orleans Mardi Gras parade organization, as the 2007 Grand Marshall of the Bacchus parade.
Brees presided as Bacchus XLII for the 2010 parade on February 14, 2010, one week after the Super Bowl during Mardi Gras season.
In June 2010, President Obama appointed Brees to be co-chair of the newly renamed President's Council on Fitness, Sports and Nutrition, along with former Olympic gymnast Dominique Dawes.
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Famous quotes containing the words charity, volunteer and/or activities:
“Opening the door of charity can create problems.”
—Chinese proverb.
“We should have an army so organized and so officered as to be capable in time of emergency, in cooperation with the National Militia, and under the provision of a proper national volunteer law, rapidly to expand into a force sufficient to resist all probable invasion from abroad and to furnish a respectable expeditionary force if necessary in the maintenance of our traditional American policy which bears the name of President Monroe.”
—William Howard Taft (1857–1930)
“Minds do not act together in public; they simply stick together; and when their private activities are resumed, they fly apart again.”
—Frank Moore Colby (1865–1925)