CLAIRTON, PA (93.7 The Fan) – His parents both educators, Steelers tight end Pat Freiermuth said if he ever made it big, he wanted to give back. Tuesday morning, with The Education Partnership, he donated supplies for Clairton Elementary students and teachers for the entire school year.
“Students will be able to take these supplies home and they’ll be able to have them to complete homework when they are working from home,” said Clairton Elementary School Principal Debra Maurizio. “It is something to make sure that each and every student has what they need to succeed.”
Maurizio said she was surprised it wasn’t just a one-time gift, rather for the whole year and included the teachers who often will purchase supplies for students out of their own pockets. The personal supply kit includes everything required by the district from notebooks and paper to pencils, markers, scissors and glue sticks.
“We do a lot of these over the course of the year,” said Josh Whiteside, the executive director of The Education Partnership. “Whenever you can have someone so recognizable and so foundational to the community as somebody like a Pittsburgh Steeler, particularly somebody like Pat Freiermuth who leads in all the right ways. It just gets the kids electric for the school year.”
“It’s awesome, means the world,” Freiermuth said. “Coming here on a Tuesday and see the smile on the kid’s faces. I love it when they ask me what position I play. It humbles me. It’s good to be out here and see the kids and see the impact that I’m making in person.”
There were several questions from the students to Freiermuth during the assembly Tuesday morning, most notably what he likes to eat before games. When he said Goldfish, it drew a big reaction.
Clairton was picked in big part because Freiermuth went to Penn State with a former Bears high school star.
“I went to college with Lamont Wade, seeing everything on Twitter and hearing about (the Clairton community) from him,” Freiermuth said. “I saw Tyler Boyd just gave them a new stadium. It’s a strong community. Just being able to give back and help support them means a lot.”
Maurizio said Clairton is a sports town and their school-wide focus is academics, attendance and attitude and sports is not possible without those three A’s
“Bears Country is now number 88 country,” Maurizio said.
“They were just excited,” Whiteside said. “If you can get a kid to get excited to be in school, you have gone a million miles in the right direction.”