Bears safety Jonathan Owens kicked off the holiday season Monday afternoon by hosting his third annual turkey drive to provide Thanksgiving meals for 500 families in Chicago.
Through the Jonathan Owens Foundation, the St. Louis native has now conducted the event in each of the NFL cities he's played in — Houston, Green Bay and Chicago — aiming to touch each community that welcomes him.
Owens felt that impact immediately upon arriving at the Building Bright Futures Center for the Arts on the city's west side as he was met with a line of families wrapped around the block. After each family was given a set of bags which included a turkey, corn, green beans, macaroni and cheese, mashed potatoes and cranberry sauce, Owens took to the street to pass out the rest of the meals to passing cars and buses.
"The holidays are just a great time to try and bless people, give people a great experience, see some smiles on kids' faces and just feel like a part of the community," Owens told ChicagoBears.com. "Thanksgiving has always been a big thing for me. When I started doing this a few years ago, getting responses from the families that came — I just saw how much we impacted the community.
"It's a great thing out here. I wish everyone could see how many happy kids and families there are. We're taking pictures, we're flagging people down in the middle of the street, giving out turkeys and Thanksgiving dinner. It's been an amazing experience."
To ensure he reached the right community, Owens teamed up with Kareem Wells, founder of the K.W.O.E Foundation, a non-profit in Chicago that aims to initiate change in underserved communities by creating a new path for youth.
Wells, a Chicago native, and Owens recently met through a mutual business partner and decided to combine their annual holiday drives to create more of an impact.
"To have a Chicago Bears player that understands the struggle, that understands what the community needs and stops what he's doing on his busy schedule — a day after a game — to come out here and show love is simply incredible," Wells said Monday. "That is what it's about. To have him come out here and to bond with him, we're gonna keep this going, no matter what. This is a great thing."
After distributing the last of the meals Monday, Owens toured the BBF Center and learned about how its foundation provides opportunities to Chicago youth through social programs, academic tutoring, emotional health services and career development opportunities.
Before wrapping up the evening, Owens had one final gift to give.
Last year, Owens' foundation decided to adopt a family for the holidays while in Green Bay and provide them with a variety of gift cards that allowed them to purchase gifts for themselves. Owens continued that tradition this year in Chicago, finding a new family who was in need of support after their house recently burned down.
Owens invited them to the BBF Center and surprised the parents and two children with presents and gift cards.
"It was something that through my foundation, we wanted to be able to bless one specific family," Owens said. "Give them some gift cards and gifts during the holidays, just so they can get themselves something and just be a blessing. It's just a small token of me just trying to give back and like I said, seeing smiles on people's faces and give them a small blessing. You never know how far it'll go for someone, especially during the holidays."
For Owens, Monday was about immersing himself into the community that has warmly welcomed him since arriving in Chicago in March and using his resources to lessen the burden for people during the holiday season.
"If you want good things to happen to you, you always have to give back, especially when you're in a position to be able to do so," Owens said. "You never know – one conversation, one picture, one handshake could change the whole trajectory of someone's life.
"I had a conversation with one kid here who plays football. He's getting ready to graduate and he's just asking me for advice and everything. Just a small nugget like that, of information and advice, could change someone's life. You never really know how you can impact them, but it's the point of trying to be intentional, meet people and see smiles on their faces."
