Officer Donnell “Dee” Fludd of the Greenwich (Ct.) Police Department talks about his flag football league for kids, a community effort that makes a difference.
I spoke recently with Officer Donnell “Dee” Fludd of the Greenwich (Connecticut) Police Department, the founder and president of the Greenwich Flag Football League.
To find out more, take a listen. I think you’ll really appreciate what he has to say.
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
(Just click on the play icon above to listen!)
The G.F.F.L. is a new and very successful community-based effort that is making a difference in improved social conditions throughout the town.
Officers Vincent O'Banner (l.) and Donnell Fludd (r.) of the Greenwich (Connecticut) Police Department, with GFFL volunteers.
Many people link Greenwich with billionaire hedge fund managers and affluent lifestyles. But the town also has housing projects and residents who live below the poverty line, as Fludd explains in the interview.
The new league helps bring people together, physically as well as symbolically, by putting youngsters literally on the same even playing field.
What’s more is that Fludd was a newcomer to the department, and an “outsider” who was new to town, yet starting four years ago he built the organization from the ground up. Today the G.F.F.L. has nearly 1,000 kids participating, and it is embraced by everyone.
Fludd leverages the popularity of the organization and its sheer numbers to create opportunities for its players to perform valuable community service. For example, they do an annual food drive to stock the Greenwich Social Services emergency food pantry, they assist special needs children, they do neighborhood cleanups, and they help home bound seniors.
The league’s Board of Directors includes Fludd, Vincent O’Banner, and Danny Paladino, all officers in the Greenwich P.D., as well as Anthony Ferraro and Romano Orlando.
Ferraro is well-known throughout the community for his involvement in the full-contact Gateway Youth Football League, perhaps the dominant organized sports league in Greenwich, where he heads up the Riverside Gators, whose Junior Division team won the league championship last season.
The G.F.F.L. has become somewhat of a feeder system for the G.Y.F.L, which in turn feeds Greenwich High School’s football programs. Greenwich High, where Hall of Fame quarterback Steve Young played, is always one of the top ranked schools in the state.
Community volunteerism is what makes the league work, and it’s irresistible. “My wife saw a sign for the G.F.F.L. and told me about the opportunity,” says Greenwich resident Mark Cosby, the President of Stores for Macy’s. “I offered to coach because I enjoy being around kids and I thought it would be a fun way to participate with my son.”
Cosby is the head coach of the Packers in the league’s Pee-Wee Division for 8-9 year-old kids. “Dee gives an incredible amount of personal time to the organization and the kids, and he does a marvelous job of connecting the folks in the G.F.F.L. with the needs of the community.”
Fludd and his league are an example of creating something from nothing, in a new place, under what might have been challenging circumstances somewhere else, with someone else.
That says something about Greenwich. But it also says a lot about “Dee”.
I think that everyone can learn something from Fludd’s story, and be inspired to do something of their own that makes a difference.
Please let me know your thoughts.
The annual Greenwich Flag Football League Awards Banquet will take place at the Grand Hyatt Greenwich on June 15, 2010, from 6:00-9:00p.m. For more information, please email gfflleague@hotmail.com or call 917-378-4210.
(All photos by Claude Johnson except “Saints receiver” photo courtesy of Tuly Arminana for the Greenwich Post and “Volunteers” photo courtesy of GFFL)
