Football team gives back, visits children’s hospital

Peter Holland Jr. // Assistant Sports Director

On their day off, the Panthers visited a local children’s hospital to give back to their community.

Every Monday, when the Panthers are not on the field or in the classroom, they are in the community, visiting schools and local children’s hospitals. On Monday, Oct. 3, some of the players took a trip to Holtz Children’s Hospital, located at University of Miami’s Jackson Memorial Hospital.

Starting left tackle Diegot Joseph is no stranger to visiting the children’s hospital and always looks forward to putting a smile on the children’s faces every time he visits.

“It was a great experience,” said Joseph. “We just went to the hospital and we enjoyed the kids and they enjoyed us, showing them a good time. We had so much fun doing bedside visits just to cheer them on. They are going through a tough situation. We’re just trying to do well for the community.”

Some of the activities the players did with the children were arts and crafts, playing video games and building with lego toys.

Senior outside linebacker Davison Colimon spoke about one little Haitian boy named Pierre, who couldn’t speak any English, according to the fifth year senior.

“It’s a blessing, it’s always good to give back,making the kids happy and do whatever we can to brighten someone else’s day,” said Colimon. “He was trying to play with the other kids, but they couldn’t understand him.”

Isaiah Hill, a true freshman, also enjoyed making the visit with his teammates and didn’t shy away from interacting with children. This is this second time the Tallahassee native visited the children’s hospital.

“I love giving back to the community,” said Hill. “I got the opportunity to talk to a lot of the kids and brighten their day.”

When the players entered, at first, the children were intimidated because of their size. However, once they got to know the team, they started to open up more and wanted be around them.

“When we walked in, they actually thought that we were basketball players because some of the o-linemen were tall,” said Hill. “It’s fun because the kids think we are gigantic. They were scared at first but then they understand that we are nice people and friendly people so they get to open up to us.”

The Panthers will travel to Charlotte, North Carolina, to face University of North Carolina Charlotte on Oct. 15 at 6 p.m.