Waking up Tuesday morning, St. Malachy Catholic School students didn’t realize they were in for “the surprise of a lifetime” that day.
The school held an assembly featuring a surprise guest, but the students didn’t suspect a thing until speaker Paul Sharkey, executive director of United Healthcare, hinted the guest wore a number seven jersey for the Eagles.
Expectedly, the students immediately broke out into screams, cheers and an inevitable “E-A-G-L-E-S Eagles!” chant.
Philadelphia Eagles’ linebacker and Temple alumnus Haason Reddick entered the auditorium to screaming cheers from the students as he prepared to give them their gifts. He delivered winter coats to the students Tuesday morning in partnership with United Healthcare, a healthcare company, Business Leadership Organized for Catholic Schools, a tuition assistance organization, and Dreambuilders Foundation, a non-profit organization that provides opportunities and equipment for less privileged children.
Just after 10 a.m. and before revealing the surprise guest, Sharkey addressed the students in the school’s auditorium, encouraging them to stay healthy by eating right and exercising.
“We are super excited at United Healthcare to partner with BLOCS, St. Malachy’s and the Philadelphia Eagles, specifically, Temple’s own Haason Reddick, to really support the community here today, and really make sure all the students are going into winter prepared with a heavy winter coat,” Sharkey added.
Reddick came out to the stage and addressed the crowd full of young Eagles fans and reminisced about his time in grade school. Reddick emphasized the importance of being able to exercise year-round and hoped the coats would keep students warm while playing outside.
St. Malachy, located on 11th and Thompson Streets, is just a four-minute drive from Temple, where Reddick attended from 2012-2016. The second-team All-Pro linebacker expressed his passion for helping a community so close to a place he once called home.
“It means a lot,” Reddick told The Temple News. “I’m just blessed to be in this position at the end of the day. With that being said, I just try to get out into the community and show the same love, give some blessings, try to change some people’s lives, impact the community as much as I can.”
The Eagles linebacker, who grew up in Camden, New Jersey, has long prioritized helping the Philadelphia community. Reddick gave back to the city, even when he played for the Arizona Cardinals and Carolina Panthers, but now he’s happy to be back in Philadelphia.
“It’s always been important to me, I’ve been doing it even when I was away,” Reddick said. “It just makes it so much better to actually be out here in person. Getting to do it on my own, getting to come and voice my own love and support for the city. It’s major that I get to actually be here, show my face, and come out and support. That way they know the love is genuine and the love is real.”
Following Reddick’s speech, Elizabeth Rafferty, St. Malachy’s principal, told students Reddick’s story of walking onto Temple’s football team as a zero-star recruit with no offers and how his hard work and being his true self clearly paid off.
“The opportunity to share an example of ‘St. Malachy proud’ as an adult, someone who is further along their journey than our students are, is such a gift,” Rafferty told The Temple Newsaid. “Sometimes, adults can come in and they can talk at kids, and that’s not what they need. Today was an opportunity to further our goals around that hard work piece. So the opportunity to do that today with such an inspiring figure and a public figure who they know was a real gift.”
After the assembly, each grade was called down to the auditorium to pick up their coats.
Dave Rowan, BLOCS’s chief executive officer, was elated to see the joy on the children’s faces after receiving their winter gear.
“Those smiles make me come to tears,” Rowan told The Temple News. “Being able to work with United Healthcare, and then you see Haason and how genuine he was, and how much it meant to him to be here to today. That’s what we’re blessed to be here to do.”
Reddick was also blown away by the energy and support from the young students.
Before departing, he grabbed the microphone and asked them to do one more Eagles chant, impressed with how loud the first one was. Reddick led the students off with the letter ‘E’ and they gladly took care of the rest.
“Shoutout to St. Malachy,” Reddick said. “The kids’ energy was off the wall. It sounded like a stadium in there man. Just a lot of love, a lot of energy, a lot of great things going on this morning.”
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