Detroit Lions Website
ALLEN PARK, Mich. — Detroit Lions quarterback Joey Harrington was the special guest of Dylan Brown at O. W. Best Middle School in Dearborn Heights today (October 25th). The sixth grader was the winner of the “NFL Take a Player to School” Contest presented by JCPenney Afterschool Program.
The morning began bright and early with an 8:00 pick up by Joey in a stretch limousine, arranged by the NFL and JCPenney, to pick up Dylan at his home to begin the morning’s adventure. After arriving at school, Dylan gave Joey a tour of the office, visited his locker and then headed to a gymnasium filled with Best students eagerly waiting for the quarterback’s visit.
Approximately 260 middle school students heard from Harrington during an all-school assembly. Harrington also made a special visit to Dylans sixth-grade class, tossed passes to the students, and conducted a question and answer session with the athletes and cheerleaders from the school.
Harrington answered dozens of questions ranging from his interests on and off the football field (Joey loves virtually all sports and has played the piano since he was four years old), has he always played quarterback (yes — his dad and uncles were all quarterbacks, too, as is his brother now at the Univesrity of Idaho) and how good his grades were in school (a 3.8 student at Central Catholic High School in Portland, Oregon and he earned a degree in business administration at the University of Oregon before coming to the Lions in 2002).
Dylan won the visit from Harrington through a “Take a Player to School” sweepstakes conducted by JCPenney in each of the 32 NFL markets and two non-NFL cities.
Since 1999, JCPenney and its official charity, the JCPenney Afterschool Fund, have contributed more than $40 million to support programs that promote the academic, physical, and social development of children in afterschool centers nationwide. The fund was established to encourage children, ages 6-13, to stay in school and become involved in after school programs.