Arik Armstead joins Chris Long in Pledge 10

Philadelphia Eagles defensive end Chris Long made headlines this season when he donated his first six game checks towards scholarships in his hometown of Charlottesville, VA. He then furthered his charitable efforts by donating his final 10 game checks to promote educational equity and opportunity in the three cities he has played in during his career; Philadelphia, Boston and St. Louis.

San Francisco 49ers defensive lineman Arik Armstead has joined Long with his own Pledge 10 campaign where he will match every dollar donated. All proceeds will go to his 91SIX Community Programs that supports the Northern California area, where he was born and raised.

Armstead’s church in Sacramento works directly with Leata’ata Floyd Elementary School where 98 percent of it’s students are section 8, living in government housing. Interestingly, Leata’ata is the mother of Chargers receiver Malcom Floyd. She chooses to live in the Sacramento housing project where she single handedly turned around a troubled neighborhood for good. The Floyds initiated sports leagues and neighborhood watch programs pulling the communities together for the children. “Tata” is a constant figure at the school often teaching hula style dance after classes have concluded. The Floyd family moved to the neighborhood when Malcom was two.

While Armstead is new to assisting in the educational system he has already jumped in head first meeting with Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg. His plan is to build a relationship with the city and get involved on the political side as well. He also wants to make sure students and faculty have all of the materials they need to further education in their community.

Armstead chose to join forces with Chris Long’s organization seeing his work and experience in equal opportunity education. He has also known the Long family for some time, playing with his brother, Kyle, while at Oregon. While Long has focused on cities where he has played, Armstead wanted to bring the program to his home town.

Here are some of the programs that Armstead’s organization supports:

Workshops:

Providing access to creative and scholastic workshops to children of all ages will allow us the opportunity to engage young students who may not have the opportunity to attend these types of educational programs. Our hope is to increase the confidence in and out of the class room by giving them additional tools and training to encourage their growth as successful students. ​

School Supply Programs:

As budgets for schools continue to shrink, we feel that we have a unique opportunity to help provide students and teachers with the necessary educational supplies to create a fun and creative learning environments for the children.

Scholarships for continuing education are in future plans for his group.

In the spirit of the holidays let’s help Armstead get this campaign rolling. All donations are tax deductible which is timely as January 1st is just around the corner!