Lauren and Tony had a wonderful time reading last week at Kenly and Palm River Elementary Schools
We are grateful to Hillsborough County Public Schools to allow our foundation reading program to visit with second grade students every Thursday. It has been an awesome blessing, and we are very grateful.
Posted on: March 05, 2024
Lauren Dungy has spent two decades reading to kids in schools that serve low-income students.
She and husband Tony Dungy want to show kids that reading isn’t punishment or a chore. It can be a portal to adventure.
But there are no more classes for the Dungys to read too. Kids are stuck at home now. To Lauren Dungy, that means reading is more important than ever.
That’s why she, through the Dungy Family Foundation, has teamed up with the nonprofit WeSeeU to provide books, coloring materials and activity packets to the students whose families are picking up meals at some Title I school distribution sites in Hillsborough County.
Children, Lauren Dungy said, are particularly vulnerable right now.
“They hear tidbits of the news and hear their parents talking, but they really don’t have that security,” she said. “It’s important for the kids to stay busy.
“If their minds are free to wander and worry without someone beside them to walk them through it, it can be pretty devastating. They may or may not have an adult in their lives to comfort them or keep them busy.”
To read the article in it’s entirety, click here.
Posted on: April 14, 2020
There are countless black men and women who we could honor in our celebration of Black History Month. A month…nor a decade would give us the space needed to share all of the people deserving of recognition for how they paved the way to where we are today. So we thought we would share a bit of the Dungy’s family history with you that has given so many a worthy perspective to live by…
Tony’s father, Wilbur Dungy, was a Tuskegee Airman and educator who died in 2004. Dungy’s father, who taught when schools were segregated, was not allowed to teach in Arlington, Virginia, when Dungy was a child. However, he didn’t complain about the lack of opportunities — he along with other men in Tony’s early professional career as an NFL coach found ways to make the situation better. They were role models and mentors for Tony and his generation of young African-American men and women.
When Tony won Super Bowl XLI against the Chicago Bears as the head coach of the Indianapolis Colts, he was invited to the White House with his team. He drove through Arlington “in the front seat,” as he put it, and reflected on his father’s life on his way to the White House. Just a little more than 50 years ago, Dungy’s dad couldn’t teach at the white schools, but he did what he thought he could do to make things better. Now, one generation later, his son is riding in the front seat, going to the White House as the first African American head coach to win a super bowl.
In 2017, Tony shared this sentiment at the Florida Department of Children and Families Black History Month Celebration. “I think that’s what this month is all about. That’s what this is all about. Black History Month, celebrating children and families. One child at a time. One family at a time. One step at a time. You never know what that step is going to be, where it can go, what it’s going to lead to.”
Will you join us in considering one thing you can do to make someone else’s life better? It just might change someone’s whole world.
Sources
Posted on: February 24, 2020
As Thanksgiving approaches, Lauren, Tony and two of their sons, Jason and Jalen were grateful to open their hearts and their books to two Tampa Elementary Schools. The eager to learn second graders, from Bellamy and Canella Schools, enthusiastically welcomed the Dungys for a reading of their book, Maria Finds Courage followed by a Q&A session.
What was uniquely impacting about this treasured school visit was the young Dungy sons took the lead, reading the book and answering the children’s questions. The teachers relished this unique approach, allowing their students the opportunity to relate to children of their age. Jason and Jalen emphasized the many facets of honorable sportsmanship while incorporating Christlike behavior.
The Dungy Family Foundation has been educating and interacting with school age children for seven years. Starting each September, the goal is to visit two schools a week as the calendar year permits. The audience of educators and students continue to provide positive feedback while allowing the Dungy Family Foundation to earnestly adhere to their mission of extending to community while offering a personal touch and encouragement.
Posted on: November 15, 2019
The Dungy Family Foundation is helping spread hope across the nation beginning with the Super Baskets of Hope event in New Orleans! Basket of Hope is thrilled to have over 15,000 books written by Tony and Lauren Dungy to put in the baskets and totes that will be delivered to hospitalized children across the nation! The books include, UNCOMMON, A Team Sticks Together, and Ruby’s New Home. The books will help lift the spirits of both the children and their parents. > More…
Posted on: January 31, 2013
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