Syracuse high school football players team up to help families at Thanksgiving

Syracuse, N.Y. — They may be competitors on the field, but football players from Syracuse’s high schools came together this week to help families in need.

Football players from ITC, Corcoran, Fowler and Nottingham high schools, as well as coaches from the city’s high schools and the Syracuse West girls basketball team all helped with the giveaway on Monday. They put together bags filled with mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce, cookies, gummy bears and of course, turkeys.

School counselors, principals and the athletic director chose 50 families of students from Syracuse city schools to receive the bags of food, based on need.

“It makes me feel great that I can put something like this together,” said Isaiah Goodrich, an Institute of Technology at Syracuse Central senior on the school’s varsity football team.

Goodrich, 17, founded a group called A.C.E — Athletes for Community Engagement — which organized a Thanksgiving food giveaway Monday. His sister, Samaia, and her group, GLOW — Girls Loving Ourselves World-wide — also helped coordinate the giveaway.

Goodrich said he did research and found Syracuse has one of the highest child poverty rates in the nation.

Last year, Goodrich and his teammates partnered with the Abundant Life Christian Center on Syracuse’s South Side and handed out more than 100 turkeys.

Earlier this year, 17 ITC students received Syracuse University’s Unsung Hero Award, which was created to honor Martin Luther King Jr. and given to local people who make positive impacts on their communities but are not widely recognized.

Goodrich and the other high school football players have done more than just hand out turkeys: They also helped set up a bike giveaway, they raised money to help five middle school athletes buy new sneakers and other athletic items, and they continue to inspire, celebrate and engage student athletes.

“I wanted to create something bigger than myself,” Goodrich said, “that brings athletes in the community together to make a positive impact.”

Goodrich, a safety and linebacker on ITC’s team that went 4-5 this past season, said he had other football players reaching out to him to find out when they could help with this year’s Thanksgiving food giveaway. They were excited and happy to help. So were many in the community, who donated items to make the event a success, he said.

Isaiah Goodrich said these people and groups all contributed to this year’s Thanksgiving giveaway: Abundant Life Church, Hueber Breuer, interim Superintendent and Mrs. Davis, DGA by A. Marie, Knockout Handyman Cleaning Services, Bruce and Phyllis Connor, Kenneth and Janice Brown, Timothy Moon, Thomas Ferrara, Tracy Naughton, the Bradford family, the Cappa family, the Goodrich family, the Harrell family, the Jenkins family, the Ogden family, the Teska-Prince family, and the Thornton family

When the families picked up their Thanksgiving bags filled with food on Monday, Goodrich said he knew he and the other student athletes were making a difference.

“Seeing how thankful the families were, and seeing young minorities in the community trying to make a difference,” he said.

Have a tip or a story idea? Contact Catie O’Toole: cotoole@syracuse.com | text/call 315-470-2134 | Twitter | Facebook

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