Colin Kaepernick Gives Back to the Needy

Colin Kaepernick is really in the giving mood this new year. After being in the news largely for protesting racial injustice in the U.S. by kneeling during the national anthem, the San Francisco 49ers quarterback pledged to to donate $1,000, 000 US dollars to multiple social causes over the course of 10 months.

Kaepernick announced December’s donations last week, with the biggest chunk – $50,000, donated to the Mni Wiconi Health Clinic at the Standing Rock camp, a camp set up in resistance to the construction of the Dakota Access pipeline. According to the quarterback’s website, 50% of the funds will pay the salaries of clinic’s staff, while the rest will be split between building materials for the Standing Rock’s mobile medical clinic, medical supplies and insurance. The free clinic at the camp was created for protesters that have rallied there for some months now in a historic protest to block the controversial oil pipeline reportedly worth US$3.8 billion.

Kaepernick has also donated to other organizations. Some of them include Appetite for Change, Southsiders Organized for Unity and Liberation of Chicago. He has already donated $100, 000 to these organizations, and plans to continue until July 2017. At the beginning of his first rounds of donations back in October and Novemeber, Kaepernick said that he plans to take his donations a step further. He stated that he was working with organizations to be involved and making sure he was actively involved in these communities.

We’ve also learned that Kaepernick is doing things for the needy in more low key fashion. In what was a cool move, the superstar donated a huge chunk of his expensive Nike shoes and accessories to the homeless shelters and orphanages. Alongside his girlfriend, he raided his closet, grabbing anything they could pack, and donated them to numerous places, including Dorothy Day House – a shelter doing incredible work in California.

We applaud Kaepernick’s gesture!