Georgia head coach Kirby Smart took to social media, calling ‘Giving Day’ his ‘favorite day of the year’. Smart and his wife, Mary Beth Smart, have run the Kirby Smart Family Foundation’s annual Giving Day event for the last nine years.
Smart was again able to host the event on Wednesday inside the Payne Indoor Athletic Facility. He estimates that the foundation has given around $2.5 million in its existence.
Giving through his foundation is something Smart hopes is setting an example for his players. It was also an opportunity to say thank you.
“I mean, if we’re going to talk about connection, we need to live it and be it,” Smart told reporters on Wednesday. “That’s why I say that these people are doing things on the ground that I’m not doing daily. I don’t have to spend a lot of time with our family foundation. My wife, Anna Defabio, runs this for us, does a ton of work for us. My daughter, Julia, got involved with it this year and helped do it. So it’s something that I want to give back to the people who work at these charitable organizations, and they really don’t get much thanks. I mean, the ESP staff in Athens is absolutely incredible, and they don’t get many days off. They serve other people. This is our day to say, thank you. We want to support your organization.”
Georgia’s players are following Kirby Smart’s example of giving
Georgia’s players have also taken to giving in their own way. Nearly 20 players signed autographs on Wednesday for those in attendance.
“They were very patient on their day off, and I love the fact that they were willing to do that on their day off,” Smart said.
Outside of the Giving Day festivities, Georgia players have used their NIL earnings to make an impact in causes of their own.
“They’re able now, within NIL, to give back,” Smart said. “So we had four guys that came up, Jordan Hall, Chris Cole, Justin Williams, and Lawson Luckie, who are community service kings. I mean, they do the most community service. They give back. Jordan Hall took his NIL money and bought PlayStations, I think it was, for local kids in the community. I mean, if you set the standard and the example, they’ll follow. So many of our kids, like Justin (Williams) talked about, he was impacted because someone sponsored him to play youth football. He’s like, ‘I wouldn’t have been here today if somebody didn’t pay my fee for me to play football as a 5-, 6-, 7-year-old’. He wants to give back. That means more to me than anything else that our players are willing to give back.”