With your help, Carolina Panthers tight end Greg Olsen could win $25,000 for Levine Children’s Hospital, as part of a hashtag contest linked to the 2016 Walter Payton NFL Man of the Year Award.
And with all contests, you have to do something to win. In this case, it's simply using and sharing the hashtag
#OlsenWPMOYChallenge on social media.
Three Fast Steps to Victory
Here’s how you can help Olsen win:
- Step 1: Log on to any social media account (Twitter, Facebook, etc.)
- Step 2: Create your own post or use ours: “GREG IS GREAT! #OlsenWPMOYChallenge”
- Step 3: Create new posts and share posts through Jan. 8, 2017
Established in 1970 – and renamed in 1999 after the late Hall of Fame Chicago Bears running back, Walter Payton – the NFL Walter Payton Man of the Year Award is the league’s most prestigious honor.
Each of the 32 players nominated for the award has a hashtag fans can share on social media. Whoever gets the most hashtag mentions wins. So, in other words: Tweet, retweet, post, re-post, share and repeat, as much as you can until the contest ends.
The winner will be announced Feb. 4, the night before Super Bowl LI.
Friendly Competition for a Great Cause
Golden State Warriors guard and NC-native Steph Curry recently asked his 7.77 million Twitter followers to support the San Francisco 49ers’ nominee and
Olsen quickly called out Curry, questioning his loyalty to his hometown team’s nominee.
https://twitter.com/gregolsen88/status/809869784619872256
But the NFL already knows how hard Olsen works on the field and how
passionate he is about helping babies with heart disease off the field. Olsen and his wife, Kara, were inspired to form
The HEARTest Yard Fund at
Levine Children’s Hospital shortly after doctors discovered the couple’s son had a genetic heart defect during a routine exam.
The free program provides about 460 hours of nursing care per family during the first six months of a baby’s life. It also offers a range of services – from in-home and private nursing care to physical and speech therapy – and has distributed more than $1.2 million in support since forming in 2013.
Dynamic Dad Provides Comfort
Kim Ortmayer, RN, the clinical supervisor of the cardiovascular intensive care unit, says despite all of the fame and publicity that surrounds Olsen, he is most at ease when he meets patients and talks to families.
“He doesn’t want hype; he just likes to sit with the families and comfort them and encourage them,” says Ortmayer. “You don’t normally have a patient or a family member checking in on the nurses, so it always stood out that he made a point to ask me how I was doing or if I needed anything.”
Above all else, Olsen is a dad at the hospital.
“I have seen him belt out the entire ‘Frozen’ soundtrack, I’ve seen him covered in vomit and I’ve seen him sit on a floor with a dad who just lost his kid and cry with him for hours,” says Ortmayer. “He just really wants everyone to do well and not many people get to see that.”
