2006 Community Quarterback Awards
December 29, 2006

2006 Community Quarterback

The Atlanta Falcons recently honored individuals in Georgia who are committed to improving their community through volunteerism with the Community Quarterback Award.  Each winner, age 13 and over, was nominated for this award due to their exemplary leadership and dedication to bettering their community.  Five winners were selected by a panel of civic and community leaders and received tickets to the Atlanta Falcons vs. Dallas Cowboys game on Saturday, December 16, 2006.  Each winner was recognized on-field and presented a game ball.  In addition, a $1,000 grant was awarded to the nonprofit organization for which each winner volunteered in his/her honor.    

This years winners volunteered their time to help underprivileged youth, empower young females, and support parents of special needs children.

James Brown works endlessly to provide safe and well supervised athletic opportunities for the youth in Montezuma, GA through the Macon County Recreation Board.  He also works with the Dooly Youth Council to provide students at Dooly County High School with youth leadership opportunities.		Teresha Freckleton-Petite works to prepare metro Atlanta high school girls from low-income families for social and professional milestones through programs offered by Enchanted Closet.  Enchanted closet was established so that underprivileged high school girls would not miss prom or any other important milestone because she cannot afford formal entire.
Haley Kilpatrick established Girl Talk to empower young females, promote self-esteem, and teach the importance of community service.  Girl Talk is a student-to-student mentoring program that pairs middle school girls with high school girls to meet weekly to listen and discuss topics that the middle school girls face.		Jillian Thiele founded The Governess School to support parents with special needs children by partnering with them to educate their mildly intellectually disabled child.  The school has teachers who organize the curriculum, teach the children, and provide incentives to encourage the students to do their best work.
Robert Webb has worked tirelessly with the United Way of Northwest Georgia for almost a decade to be a catalyst for change in the Dalton area.  His efforts have aided in providing innovative programs that directly match those in need with those who wish to help.

2006 Junior Community Quarterback

The Atlanta Falcons also honored community volunteers in Georgia with the Junior Community Quarterback Award, funded by NFL Charities, which  honors volunteers who have demonstrated leadership, dedication, and commitment to bettering the communities in which they live.  Each applicant, age 13-21, either recently created a new community betterment project or was working to sustain a project they had already initiated. Four winners were selected by a panel of civic and community leaders and received tickets to the Atlanta Falcons vs. Dallas Cowboys game on Saturday, December 16, 2006.  Each winner was recognized on field and presented a game ball.  In addition, a $1,000 grant was awarded to the sponsoring organization of the winner to support his/her program.

This years winners created unique programs focused on decreasing drop out rates, bridging language and cultural gaps, and teaching swim lessons and water safety for underprivileged youth.

Tiffany Jackson and Dejarius Thurman created the Graduate Mentoring Program to decrease the drop out rates of students in the West End community of Atlanta.  This three-tier mentoring program fosters relationships between college students and middle school through high school students in hopes of encouraging them to graduate high school and obtain a college degree.		In 2004, Jordan Schwartz founded The Childrens Bilingual Theater to bridge the language and cultural gap between English Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) and students learning Spanish.  This program is dedicated to exposing a diverse group of young people to the theatre by participating in a dual language or bilingual play.
Laura Elizabeth White created Wild and Water, in partnership with the Dekalb Aquatics Swim Team, to teach underprivileged youth in the metro Atlanta area how to swim and important water safety skills.

The Atlanta Falcons take pride in enabling these youth and community leaders to continue to better their community through the Junior Community Quarterback and Community Quarterback Awards, and hope that their efforts will inspire more people to change the world through volunteerism and activism.