A toy drive fundraiser sponsored by stricken Buffalo Bills player Damar Hamlin went wild on GoFundMe, earning more than $3 million in donations after the player’s sudden collapse during the NFL’s Week 7 Monday Night Football game.
As Breitbart News reported, Hamlin, 24, collapsed suddenly on the field after a tackle on Monday during the first quarter of the Bills-Bengals game and was rushed to a Cincinnati hospital. He is now listed as in critical condition and is reported as having suffered a cardiac arrest.
In the wake of his collapse, Hamlin’s GoFundMe, called The Chasing M’s Foundation Community Toy Drive, gained serious traction with the entire goal of $2,500 raised in minutes and many times that. Overnight it brought in $3,706,280 at press time.
Pittsburgh NCAA college football defensive back Damar Hamlin poses for a photo with Bryce Williams, 3, of McKees Rocks, Pa., after the youngster picked out a toy during Hamlin’s Chasing M’s Foundation community toy drive at Kelly and Nina’s Daycare Center, Tuesday, Dec. 22, 2020, in McKees Rocks, Pa. (Matt Freed/Pittsburgh Post-Gazette via AP, File, File)
“As I embark on my journey to the NFL, I will never forget where I come from and I am committed to using my platform to positively impact the community that raised me. I created The Chasing M’s Foundation as a vehicle that will allow me to deliver that impact, and the first program is the 2020 Community Toy Drive,” Hamlin wrote in his fundraiser description.
“This campaign gives you the opportunity to contribute to our first initiative and positively impact children who have been hardest hit by the pandemic. 100% of the funds raised will go toward the purchase of toys for kids in need,” he added.
The toy drive had already been held, of course, since it was for Christmas. The initial toy purchases were distributed on Dec. 22. But this three million will certainly go a long way to make Christmas 2023 a joyous occasion for countless needy kids.
CNN noted that WKBW spoke to Hamlin about the toy drive last month.
Heather Rohr, of Montfort Heights, and Anna Britt, of Groesbeck, stand outside the University of Cincinnati Medical Center where Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin was taken after collapsing during an NFL football game against the Cincinnati Bengals in Cincinnati on Monday, Jan. 2, 2023. (Albert Cesare/The Cincinnati Enquirer via AP)
“Something I’ve always been into just giving back, something I’ve been doing back home in Pittsburgh for three years, I’ve been doing the toy drive, so just being able to extend it to Buffalo now is just something I love doing,” Hamlin said at the time.
Hamlin and the Buffalo Bills were recipients of an outpouring of prayers and well-wishing after the player’s collapse. And the business owners in downtown Cincinnati flooded their buildings with blue lights in support of the player.
Blaze of blue lights in Downtown Cincinnati for Damar Hamlin, Buffalo Billshttps://t.co/2GsOPq9q85 pic.twitter.com/UcPP2Apt3a
— FOX19 NOW (@FOX19) January 3, 2023
Hamlin is not the first NFL player to collapse on the field with a heart attack. Indeed, in 1971 a player collapsed and died during a game.
Detroit Lions player Chuck Hughes collapsed with a heart attack on Oct. 24, 1971 as his team was winding up its game against the Chicago Bears. Hughes, though, did not survive his condition and died on the field. Hughes is the only player to ever die during a pro football game.
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