Did you notice the fancy footwear that Baltimore Ravens' All-Pro safety Kyle Hamilton was wearing as part of this year’s My Cause My Cleats campaign in partnership with USAA while playing against the Philadelphia Eagles this weekend?
The cleats are painted in Ravens’ purple while bringing attention to Our Military Kids.
Motivated by the strength of military kids and an appreciation for the challenges they are met with, Hamilton recently put the cause into action by surprising several local military kids from the Baltimore area with a tour of the Ravens’ practice facility, where they enjoyed each other's company and put on their favorite pair of cleats to throw some touchdowns.
“I think it's important to me because I was that kid at one point,” he said. “Didn’t have a parent in the military, but I was wanting advice and wanting to meet NFL players.”
Our Military Kids Executive Director Kara Dallman said the organization was founded 20 years ago.
“What we do is pay for their extracurricular activities during a time that’s pretty stressful, to have mom or dad gone for deployment or recovering from combat injuries,” she said.
The cleats were designed by Marcus Rivero of Soles by Sir. One honors Our Military Kids with the organization’s logo and a picture of kids playing together. The other cleat honors the different branches of the military with their logo. Additional elements include the quote ‘Keep Going’, a phrase used by the team to encourage grit and perseverance.
The My Cause, My Cleats campaign allows players to sport non-traditional colors on their cleats, enhancing visibility for their chosen causes. It launched in Week 13 of the NFL season.
Reach Julia LeDoux at Julia@connectingvets.com.