Baltimore Ravens' legend Ed Reed teaches Baltimore students the importance of being active
Students at T. Booker Middle School in Baltimore got out of their classroom and ran through circuits for the Ed Reed Foundation's annual Fitness Day.
The event focused on health, empowerment, and teamwork.
Volunteers, trainers, and professional athletes joined over a hundred students, including former Baltimore Ravens player Ed Reed himself.
"You have to pay it forward," said Reed. "I was one of these kids, and you just want to create a ripple effect. You see the smiles, I've seen the changes over 20 plus years of being over here. It's just inspiring to see these kids. They inspire me."
Importance of staying active
Reed said life is about being fit. He believes it's important to plant the seeds in the students now on how to take care of their bodies and be healthy. It's also an opportunity to talk about general life skills.
"It's only one day," Reed said, "so hopefully they take one gym, and it will help change and affect their lives. So that's what it's about."
Reed wasn't the only professional athlete in attendance, former Ravens linebacker Brian Hall said he's been coming for the past few years.
"I'm from a small town in Paducah, Kentucky, so it makes it hard for me to ever see anything like this, and I do believe in exposure," said Hall. "Exposure's the most important thing that you have because you've never seen it before, and then you start to see it more and more in your life, now you start to believe that it's possible."
He noted how quickly the kids can adapt and succeed, and echoed Reed's sentiment about how it's important to introduce healthy lifestyles to kids while they're young.
"You've got to be put in these situations to see what you're made of, right?" Hall said. "And we put these kids in these unique spots that they may have never done before, but it shows how athletic they are, how gifted they already are. And just understanding that when they continue to progress and build on these skills in life, not only on fields and sports but in life too, you can continue to grow as a person."
The event was made possible by volunteers, partners, and sponsors, such as MURN Properties and CFG Bank.
