EDSBS Charity Bowl Again Harnessing the Spite of the College Football Internet for Good

It’s that time of year again. Time for one of my favorite charitable events of the year. No, it’s not the late November day I tell my Georgia Tech grad neighbor just to be conciliatory that they were really close this year (they weren’t) and they’ll probably break their losing streak next year (they won’t).

Nope, it’s the start of the EDSBS Charity Bowl. Longtime Dawg Sports readers are probably already familiar with the weeklong telethon that began a decade ago over at our now-dormant SB Nation sister site Every Day Should Be Saturday. It was a simpler time. Chris Conley hadn’t caught the ball on the five yard line yet, 2nd and 26 hadn’t happened, and Paul Johnson roamed the Bobby Dodd sideline in all his jowly resplendence.

And the folks at EDSBS decided to use their Internet bullhorn to help a worthy charity financially. It worked. It worked better than anyone could have anticipated. It worked so well that it has become an annual event that raises six figures for New American Pathways, a 501(c)(3) organization headquartered in Atlanta. Their mission statement is here and I urge you to read it in full. But in a nutshell they help refugees from around the world acclimate to life in the Peach State and provide the resources and support to help them become productive Georgians.

You may not have known this, but Georgia is one of the most active states in America for refugee resettlement. There are a variety of reasons for this and I’ll be glad to discuss them at length with you some other time. But the reality on the ground is that our state is the place where many from across the world find themselves when the U.S. government recognizes that they’ve been subjected to religious, ethnic, and political persecution and should by all means leave the only home they’ve ever known to start a new life in a foreign land.

It’s good to avoid being a victim of genocide. It’s bad to find yourself in a place whose language you don’t speak, whose customs you don’t know, often with little in the way of financial resources or family support.

That’s where New American Pathways comes in. They provide initial support to house, feed, and clothe those who need it. They provide educational resources to help refugees acclimate to America, and build skills that help them join the work force. And they provide counseling services to help those who bear the psychological scars of escaping the war zones and repressive regimes many of NAP’s clients are escaping.

It’s important work, and I believe you should be proud that your fellow Georgians are doing it. That being said, it ain’t cheap. That’s where you come in.

You can donate to the Charity Bowl at this link. You’ll be prompted to select an amount, your morally superior school, and given the chance to include a message of hope and love. Or you can also write “AUBURN DELENDA EST!!!!” or “GATORS EAT BOOGERS!!!!!” or whatever else moves you. Any amount is appreciated and helps the folks at New American Pathways do good things. But you can also attune your donation to a specific sporting event or outcome. My 2018 donation was for $42.07 in honor of, well, I still giggle about it.

Bulldog fans finished eleventh overall in giving last year, tallying $8092.29. It was a solid effort, one of which we should be proud.

But here’s the thing. Look who was #2. In fact, just take a gander at the whole top ten.

If Tech fans are giving forty Gs to a great cause I’m willing to let them have it. But I’ll be a Gator’s uncle before I believe that Alabama, Florida, and Tennessee fans are more charitable than us. I just can’t fathom it.

So give. Give $44.21 in honor of the game that marked the beginning of the end of the Jeremy Pruitt era. Give $3.07 to honor Georgia Tech’s momentous 3-7 2020 season (they matched their win total from 2019 in two fewer games!). But whatever else, consider giving. Until later...

Go ‘Dawgs!!!