A group of Denver Bronco Quarterback Club members gave their time to support John Lynch Foundation’s 16th annual “Salute The Stars Awards Luncheon” at Sports Authority Field on May 2, 2014. The John Lynch Foundation’s mission is to develop young leaders and it does so by recognizing and rewarding deserving student-athletes from Denver and Colorado at large, who not only have excelled in academics and athletics, but also have demonstrated a commitment to community service. We were honored to help out for such a worthy cause.
Here’s Paula Faulkner, DBQC President, helping setup the tables before the event.
We also helped with checking in the student athletes and their families. It was a thrill to be on the 50 yard line – the first time most of us had been in the stadium since the big AFC Championship game win over New England in January.
Former Bronco John Lynch’s welcoming speech was played on the big scoreboard. After awards were given out, Peyton Manning gave the keynote address, inspiring the youth in attendance. See some video clips of the event here.
“The reality is that being a scholastic or a collegiate student-athlete has a lot more to do with learning than it does with winning,” Manning said. “Student-athletes learn more than most people about the blessings and lasting pleasure of camaraderie and shared sacrifice, collective responsibility and commitment to excellence, time management and life management. In some ways, it would’ve been a lot easier to have been just a football player or baseball player or swimmer without being a student, and the opposite holds true as well. It would be much easier to be just a student and let the other sports for some other day and time. But it wouldn’t have been as joyous or rich or quite candidly as humbling to have been one without the other. Remember that the next time you hit the wall on the last lap of your race or are bleary eyed trying to finish your homework and still get a good night’s sleep. Remember that when you lose your next competition and struggle to figure out how best to come back and fight again. Each of you has the makings to be a leader. But innate talent simply is not enough today. You have the choice to lead, and there are plenty of athletes who lead in the huddle, but they leave that spark on the playing field or in the locker room. If you have the talent, if you have the will, make it count for more than just numbers on a scoreboard.”
It was a memorable day for these four volunteers from the Denver Broncos Quarterback Club (from left to right: Paula Faulkner, Susan Paquette, Dora Torrez, and Tim Larison).