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Field Goal Scores “Super” Volunteering Wager
Field Goal Scores “Super” Volunteering Wager

Evan McPherson’s overtime field goal gave the upstart Cincinnati Bengals a 27-24 win over the Kansas City Chiefs in the AFC Championship Game, sending them to Super Bowl LVI, to be played Feb. 13 in Los Angeles. 

The game-winning kick also will mean a donation for one local Cincinnati charity thanks to a friendly wager between economic development groups in the two cities, which have also pledged to volunteer a week after the big game.

The Kansas City Area Development Council (KCADC) and Regional Economic Development Initiative (REDI) Cincinnati launched a volunteering day in both regions in observance of National Random Acts of Kindness Day on Feb. 17, with a goal of recruiting more than 500 volunteers collectively. As part of the collaboration, branded with the hashtag #RepTheMidwest, the losing team (Kansas City in this case) will donate to the other development group’s charity of choice. The donation will focus on three areas: the welfare of veterans, education and workforce development, and food insecurity.

Kansas City and Cincinnati rank among the nation’s top philanthropic cities for volunteering. Kansas City volunteers contribute some 54.4 million hours of service annually while Cincinnati volunteers contribute 48.8 million hours of service. The more than 103 million hours of service per year are estimated to be worth $2.4 billion.

Cincinnati quarterback Joe Burrow, a native of Ohio, is no stranger to philanthropy. Burrow’s Heisman Award speech, after he was recognized as college football’s top player in 2019, sparked an outpouring of donations to the Athens Food Pantry and has since become the Joe Burrow Hunger Relief Fund, which raised $1.3 million during the Bengals’ playoff run via the Foundation for Appalachian Ohio.

As part of the National Football League’s “My Cause, My Cleats” campaign, Burrow sported special orange-and-green cleats during regular season games in December. The cleats had “Foundation for Appalachian Ohio” emblazoned on one side, “Athens County Food Pantry” on the other, and “Joe Burrow Hunger Relief Fund” on the back.