Update: In less than 48 hours, over $170,000 has been given in support of Thomas Morstead’s charity, exceeding their campaign goal. View the campaign here.
Thomas Morstead, the punter for the New Orleans Saints, had no idea that his persistence and resilience during the New Orleans Saints’ loss in the NFL Divisional match-up with the Minnesota Vikings on January 14, 2018, would spark such an outpouring of generosity.
Morstead was injured on the field during the first kick of the game, suffering a painful cartilage tear in his ribs. While the Saints put up a good fight during Sunday’s game, they ultimately lost to the Vikings. The time had run out, but the extra point attempt was mandated. While the Saints were devastated, Morstead, injury and all, was the first out on the field for the final kneel-down.
Following the game, a Vikings fan who admired Morstead’s hustle and humility posted an appeal on Reddit inviting Vikings fans to donate to Thomas Morstead’s foundation, What You Give Will Grow (WYGWG), in honor of his effort.
This sparked an overwhelming response from Vikings fans. Morstead and his team noticed the outpouring of support and quickly launched a fundraising website using CauseVox to make it easy to give and showcase the progress. Due to the generosity shown by so many Minnesota fans, Morstead was then inspired to give back all the support to the community in Minnesota in support of the child life program at Children’s Minnesota.
According to Dennis Lomonaco, Executive Director at WYGWG, “This campaign has been overwhelming. It is awesome to see moments like this where humanity comes together for a good cause. We see that football is more than just a game to watch. It moves people to give back, support causes, and rally around a purpose.” He applauds CauseVox for “making it incredibly easy to make this happen quickly.,” as they had “very little time to put this all together.” Dennis further noting that “CauseVox allows us to easily keep people updated [through real-time campaign progress tracking] and continue conversations on social media. This is what’s needed to make a campaign spread.”.
The excitement and support for the campaign is still growing. Here are a few highlights:
We are so grateful for the outpour of love and donations from @Vikings fans! Over $60K raised and all the money is going back to @childrensmn Child Life Department.
RT and let’s keep it going!#WhoDat#WhatYouGiveWillGrowhttps://t.co/T8nSr76viX
— Thomas Morstead (@thomasmorstead) January 17, 2018
We’re overwhelmed by the support of our community and from football fans from across the nation! A huge thank you to @Saints punter @thomasmorstead and his @wygwg6 foundation for supporting our Child Life program! https://t.co/hUVKAxPgeS
— Children’s Minnesota (@childrensmn) January 17, 2018
One of the best stories in sports – @Vikings fans are donating to @Saints @thomasmorstead’s @wygwg6 fundraiser for his gutsy and stand up performance in a heart breaking loss. All funds to the child life program in Minneapolis. Consider giving here! https://t.co/klUjyKZ8N7
— Mizzen+Main (@MizzenAndMain) January 17, 2018
https://t.co/xiiaWr2UG6
Loved that @thomasmorstead was the first #Saints back out on the field 2 play defense for the “final” snap of the game, I Love what he is doing for #WYGWG EVEN MORE! #YouDat #ClassAct #GiveBack @childrensmn #ChildLife #WYGWG#Skol
https://t.co/266Dk41EgJ— Jeremy Dehn (@JeremyDehn7) January 17, 2018
In just a few hours, the campaign has seen over 3,700 people support the campaign and is continuing to garner support. And, because they reached their $100k goal, Morstead said he’ll be personally flying up to Minnesota during the 2018 Super Bowl to present the funds raised to Children’s Minnesota.
At CauseVox, we believe that together we can help good flourish. Every day, we’re inspired by the impact of campaigns like What You Give Will Grow’s campaign.
