The Eagles, Brian Dawkins and Staples have teamed up to help improve parks and playgrounds in the Philadelphia area and surrounding suburbs.
Together, they launched the Staples Dream Park Challenge in which 15 area parks have an opportunity to win $25,000 for improvements.
"Well, when they came to me and told me the details of what it was for, basically the kids it would reach and be able to give some finances to the parks, I jumped right on board," Dawkins said.
Local residents can visit www.StaplesDreamPark.com/Eagles from now through Nov. 17 to vote for their community park. The park that receives the most online votes will be the "Staples Dream Park Challenge With The Eagles" winner and will be announced at a celebration with Dawkins at Lincoln Financial Field later this winter.
"It's going to be up to the people in the community to go online to vote," Dawkins said. "You can go online to find exactly the 15 parks that have been identified. The people in the community can then step up. You can go out and grab one of these Staples Power Cards that actually gives you 10 extra votes and you can vote once a day, all for a great cause."
The park that receives the most online votes will win $25,000, the second-place park will win $10,000 and the third-place park will receive $5,000 to help with park upgrades. The 12 remaining parks will each receive $500 to be used toward park enhancements. In addition, voters will be automatically entered into a drawing to meet Dawkins at Lincoln Financial Field for the celebration of the Dream Park Challenge winner.
"There are some many different things they could use the money for," Dawkins said. "It doesn't have to go just for the park. They can use it for whatever they feel is best. But it's still for the best interests of the kids and the young adults in that community. It's nothing but a win-win situation for me to lend my name to this, to allow the communities to go out and vote for the park (of their choice)."
Dawkins said he hopes the money goes toward making play areas safer for local children.
"I know it's important for me as a parent to have that safe haven for them to go play in," Dawkins said. "So anytime I can lend my name to some initiative like this to allow others to afford the same type of advancements, I jumped right on board."
