Ronnie Brown Nominated for 2010 Walter Payton NFL Man of the Year Award

Ronnie Brown was honored as the recipient of the Miami Dolphins NFL’s Walter Payton Man of the Year Award nominee, which is announced during Super Bowl week. The Walter Payton Man of the Year award is given annually by the National Football League honoring a player’s volunteer and charity work, as well as his excellence on the field. Past Dolphins who won the award were Dan Marino (1998), Dwight Stephenson (1985) and Jason Taylor (2007).

“I just want to say that I’m humbled and gracious to be able to be nominated for an award of this caliber,” Brown said. “I think there are a lot of my teammates that are just as involved in the community, so I’d like to say thanks to the Miami Dolphins organization for helping me out and giving me an opportunity to be involved as much as I am.”

Since joining the Miami Dolphins during the 2005 season, Ronnie has been extremely involved in the Community and has become one of the players you can always count on to give back with a smile on his face.  He is one of the most charitable players on the team.  Ronnie has always demonstrated leadership, dedication, and commitment to the team and Community.

Ronnie has always supported all of the Miami Dolphins Community Relations and Miami Dolphins Foundation Events.  With the recent problems of youth violence in our community Ronnie started his own program.  23 Ways to Stop Youth Violence is an anti-violence campaign aimed at middle school and high school students designed to create heightened awareness of the epidemic of violence and bullying today’s young people are experiencing, and to discuss practical solutions to managing the actions and emotions that often lead to violent acts. Spearheaded by Brown, and supported by his partners in this program, including Teen Truth Live and the Miami-Dade Violence Intervention Project (VIP), 23 Ways is a powerful, interactive experience that features motivational speakers, Teen Truth Live’s award-winning documentary and VIP’s staff of law enforcement officials, counselors and social workers from the Miami-Dade Juvenile Services Department.  The program will impact more than 10,000 young people over the course of a four month period.  Almost every Tuesday, Ronnie has been visiting local schools for his program.

Ronnie also continues to support additional programs and events in our community.  In November, Ronnie Co-hosted the Kids and Fins Publix Shopping Spree at Publix.  The event gave 100 underprivileged children from Miami Dade and Broward County Public Schools the opportunity to shop with over 100 current/ former players, cheerleaders and wives of players and coaches and at Publix for a Thanksgiving Meal for their families.  Each child was given a $100 gift certificate to shop. The event also featured a kid’s party where Ronnie spoke to and entertained the children with games and dance contests. He will also Host the Jason Taylor Foundation Ping Pong Tournament in December.

In addition to giving his time, Ronnie also generously donates money to the Miami Dolphins Team Thanksgiving Meal Giveaway and the Team Holiday Toy Event.  As part of the new Legacy Program of the Miami Dolphins All Community Team, Ronnie purchases 100 tickets per game for children to attend Dolphins games.  The children also receive Ronnie Brown Project t shirt, hot dog, pop corn and soda vouchers. Ronnie also serves as the Spokesman for the Miami Dolphins Most Valuable Reader Program where he visited libraries for Summer Reading.  He also recently went to the Center for Haitian Studies in Little Haiti part of Miami to present the organization with a check from the Miami Dolphins Foundation.

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