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A Lion Shares
DETROIT LION MIKE FURREY IS ONE OF THE NFL'S TOP RECEIVERS, BUT OFF THE FIELD, IT'S ALL ABOUT GIVING
As a star wide receiver in the NFL, Mike Furrey knows he must catch passes with accuracy and consistency. Furrey led the National Football Conference and ranked second in the NFL in successful receptions during the 2006 season, and stands firmly in the midst of a three-year contract with the Detroit Lions.
Furrey has made a career of receiving. But off the field, the one thing that is more important to Mike than receiving is giving.
Always time to give
While Mike sees a lot of action on the field, it doesn’t compare to how busy he is elsewhere. He and his wife of four years, Koren, both 30, have three small children, Makayla, 3; Stone, 1; and Kanon, 4 months, along with Butkus, an English bulldog, and Bozly, a chocolate Lab.
Their newly built Canton home (they also have a home in their native Ohio) is host to a constant bustle of activity. Mike and Koren, who met in second grade and began dating in college, pass the babies between them with ease – feeding, comforting and playing with them without missing a step. They share something else that keeps them on their toes: The Mike Furrey Foundation, a nonprofit organization working to help the “hungry, homeless, hurting and hopeful.”
Last year, the foundation raised $347,000, largely through events such as bowling parties and celebrity-studded golf tournaments. The money benefits a variety of efforts in metro Detroit, including Detroit Rescue Mission Ministries, dedicated to the needy and homeless; Christ Child House of Detroit, which cares for abused and neglected children; and Campus Crusade for Christ, a student ministry organization.
A regular fixture
The Furreys don’t believe in just writing checks or showing up occasionally at a function. Their work is more than fundraising. To borrow a sports phrase, their mission is to be “part of the action,” whether serving food at the Detroit Rescue Mission or hosting 100 Canton, Plymouth and Salem high school students for twicemonthly huddles with the Fellowship of Christian Athletes, the largest Christian sports organization in the country.
Through all the work that keeps Mike and Koren busy from day to day, they never lose sight of the bigger picture and their strongest inspiration: faith. Above all, Mike sees his role in the NFL as a stage from which he and Koren can talk about their true calling in life – to aid others – and hope that people are motivated to follow suit.
“There’s only one rule [in our lives], and that’s to serve other people,” says Mike. “That’s it. Christ came down and didn’t look for any publicity. He washed people’s feet, and if he can get down and do that, the minimum we can do is try to help others with what he has blessed us with.”
For motivation, they look no further than their own life together, which, for this couple, hasn’t always been the comfortable existence provided by an NFL salary. Unlike many players, Mike, who played for Ohio State University and the University of Northern Iowa, wasn’t drafted right out of college. He and Koren worked 9-to-5 jobs, she at Ford Motor Co., he as a landscaper and builder.
“By no means were we homeless or hurting, but it was paycheck to paycheck,” says Koren. “One week your money paid for your house, the next week, you paid your bills. It was never like buying new cars or houses.”
And Mike’s rise to success in the NFL inspired the couple to reach out to others. “With what I get to do for a living, plus three healthy kids and our marriage, we are blessed with so much that we want to give back and help other people and those in need,” he says.
Family values
It’s no coincidence that children are the primary recipients of the Furreys’ goodwill. Having battled through a start-and-stop beginning to his career – including training with (but never playing for) the Indianapolis Colts, short stints with the Xtreme Football League and Arena Football League, and three years with the St. Louis Rams – Mike knows the value of offering a spirit of perseverance to vulnerable kids and speaks often to young people.
“Nowadays the world is so negative,” he says, “where if you say you want to become something, the first thing someone is going to say is, ‘No way. It’s not possible. You can’t be a professional athlete, you can’t be a doctor, you can’t be a lawyer.’ When I was in high school, and when I was growing up, not one person told me I could do it. And all I wanted to be was a professional athlete. So I stood there and I took the bullets, and I took the hits … and now here we are, going on our sixth year [in the NFL].”
On any given Tuesday – Mike’s only day off during the season – he, Koren and Lions backup quarterback Dan Orlovsky spend the afternoon visiting DMC Children’s Hospital of Michigan, spreading good cheer while challenging young patients to video and board games.
“They are so genuine, and the kids sometimes don’t even realize [Furrey and Orlovsky] are stars, though eventually they figure out they play for the Lions,” says Deanna Scanlon, child life project specialist at the hospital. “But for Mike, it’s not about having press coverage. He’s just here to hang out with the kids and make their stay a bit easier and more comfortable.”
That passionate, hands-on desire fueled a foundation-sponsored toy drive last Christmas that resulted in a semi-truck full of toys for local children. “It was important for Mike and me that if we had a toy, we’d give it to somebody in Detroit, not ship it out to Utah or Ohio,” says Koren.
Barely resting from their efforts, the Furreys started planning bigger and better for next year’s toy drive. “Next year, we want to do this at every Meijer location in [metro] Detroit,” says Mike.
And while you might think a couple with three children under 4 would need a vacation away from kids, they actually spent their most recent trip watching someone else’s children. They visited the Bahamas in February with a local family through Rainbow Connection, a Michigan wish-fulfilling program for sick children. The Furreys spent time with the siblings so their parents could take a muchneeded break.
Up next
This year, Mike and Koren are planning a collaborative effort with a foundation established by Atlanta Falcons running back Warrick Dunn, to provide a furnished home for a single parent in Detroit. “Our goal is to pick someone who will receive a home in the community, and then we will come in and pay for everything inside,” says Koren. “So not only do they get the house, but they move in and it’s furnished, down to the towels and dishwashing soap.”
The Mike Furrey Foundation is also starting up a local division of the nationwide program Basket of Hope. Twice a year, baskets will be delivered to families with children being treated at Children’s Hospital in Detroit and Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus, Ohio (see box on this page). The packages will be filled with toys and games for kids, and inspirational materials for parents.
“Everybody who has a child has been to the doctor,” says Koren. “Every time you are there, you see somebody in the waiting room who is worse off than you are. And you always think, ‘Gosh, what can I do?’ ”
She says Basket of Hope will provide an outlet for donors to contribute items. “It’s one of those things where people don’t have the time to make the call down to Children’s to ask what they need. [Now they] can just bring a card game of Uno and drop it off, and that makes a difference.”
Mike and Koren say they’re thrilled by the fact that despite Michigan’s tough times, a bounty of giving has allowed them to reach out to others.
“The way the economy is and the way we were getting responses [with our charitable work] here in Detroit, you can definitely tell that we’ve been embraced,” says Mike. “That’s what energizes us to just want to do more and more and more.”
KNOW OF A SCHOOL IN NEED?
Each year, Mike and Koren Furrey partner with a metro Detroit elementary school for a year-long program to spark awareness of the importance of education. They are looking for nominations for the 2008-09 school year.
The Furreys will visit the chosen school and deliver incentives, such as tickets to Detroit Lions home games, for meeting educational goals throughout the year. Call Alicia Maynard at 614.588.6428 to nominate a school.
BASKET OF HOPE
The Mike Furrey Foundation’s newest project is Basket of Hope, a program through which baskets filled with toys, games, books, CDs and DVDs, and inspirational materials will be delivered to DMC Children’s Hospital of Michigan and Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Mike and Koren Furrey’s native Columbus, Ohio. The goal is to deliver 200 baskets twice a year, in April and September.
Donations are needed in the form of money or children’s items (except stuffed animals or Play-doh) for baskets. Volunteers are needed to pick up donations and deliver baskets. To find out how you can help, visit www.mikefurrey.net or call 614.588.6428. To learn about the program, visit www.basketofhope.org.