Cleveland Browns, United Way team up for a "Hometown Huddle" to build a play structure in one day for Friendly Inn Settlement on October 7

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(Cleveland, Ohio) October 1, 2003
Cleveland Browns players and United Way Services volunteers will scrimmage with shovels and screwdrivers instead of helmets and shoulder pads on Tuesday, October 7, to build a play structure at Friendly Inn Settlement, 2386 Unwin Road in Cleveland. The Browns will team up with United Way Services and Eaton Corporation for the 5th Annual NFL and United Way Hometown Huddle. From 9 a.m. until 4 p.m., Cleveland Browns players and staff will join community leaders and volunteers from United Way Services and Eaton Corporation with the goal of building a colorful 36'x30' Landscape Structures modular play unit complete with slides, climbers and roofs. The structure will be located in the inner courtyard of the agency. The children at Friendly Inn will be able to play on it at 4 p.m. once it is finished. Eaton Corporation and the Cleveland Browns donated the cost of the playground.

The Hometown Huddle is part of the ongoing partnership between the National Football League and United Way of America involving more than 300 NFL players from the league. Annually, more than 3,000 people benefit from the Hometown Huddle through United Ways across the country, as most teams devote the same day to local activities.

"We are fortunate to have the Cleveland Browns as such great team players for this community," said Alexander Cutler, chairman and CEO of Eaton Corporation. Cutler is chairman of the United Way Services 2003 campaign. "In addition to participating in the hands-on project of the Hometown Huddle, the Browns are assisting in our $50 million campaign by conducting a corporate campaign, donating $20,000 from the Great Lakes Classic, contributing autographed memorabilia for fund raisers, participating in the United Way Celebrity Golf Tournament and much more."

"The Cleveland Browns will be devoting a day for a special kind of victory when our team helps tackle a play structure for the youngsters of Cleveland's Friendly Inn Settlement," Browns' president and CEO Carmen Policy said. "When we take the field on Sundays, we know that we have helped children have a safe, colorful place to play every day of the week. That is what being part of a community is all about for us."

"Having the Cleveland Browns devote so much time and effort in building the play structure means a great deal to our children and to the people we serve," said Geraldine H. Burns, executive director of Friendly Inn Settlement. "Our children will not only benefit from having a better place for playing and growing, but also they are delighted to know that these wonderful organizations care about them. It's a tribute to the kind of community that Cleveland is."

"This year we celebrate the 30th year of the United Way/NFL partnership," said K. Michael Benz, president and CEO of United Way Services. "All three of the participants this year -- the Browns, Eaton Corporation and United Way -- believe in the power of teamwork. We will come together, along with community leaders and one of our partner agencies, on this Hometown Huddle project to make a difference in the lives of some of our most precious possessions, our children."

Friendly Inn Settlement, which serves the central area of Cleveland, offers programs and services that help improve the quality of life for the neighborhood, the family and the individual. Among the programs that serve people from early childhood to seniors are before- and after-school childcare, summer programs, a food pantry, parent education and support and senior programs. The settlement, which recently moved into new, expanded facilities, will offer day care and a computer-learning center.