2 Rams players surprised a homeless family with a furnished apartment
This is the time of year when everyone is encouraged to think about those who are less fortunate. And Los Angeles Rams players Tavon Austin and Robert Quinn don’t take that lightly. The two of them helped Shwonna Cox and her six children, who had recently been homeless, settle into a four-bedroom apartment on Tuesday.
Gary Klein at the Los Angeles Times wrote up the story, and it’s heartwarming. Austin and Quinn worked with the Rams and LA Family Housing, a non-profit organization that helps people transition out of homelessness and poverty, to help the Cox family, and the result was incredible.
Good work off the field by Rams Robert Quinn and Tavon Austin. https://t.co/q7qadJNg6Y
— Gary Klein (@LATimesklein) December 20, 2017
When Cox and her children walked into their new apartment on Tuesday, it was fully furnished, and a total surprise. (Seeing the two Rams players there was also quite the surprise.) Austin and Quinn had paid for everything: beds, TVs, living room furniture, a dining room table and chairs, and a fully stocked kitchen. But that wasn’t all: there were even Christmas decorations and presents under the tree. There’s a video of the family entering their home for the first time, with Quinn and Austin answering the door for them, which you can watch here.
This is the second straight year that Austin and Quinn have done this for a family in need. Klein spoke to Molly Higgins, the Rams’ vice president of community affairs and engagement, who said that both Austin and Quinn had expressed a desire to do something like this, but had approached her separately about it. Higgins found the perfect way for the players to give back to the community.
The Rams partnered with United Way, which connected the team and LA Family Housing. The players paid to furnish an apartment for a mother and her children in Sun Valley.
“We checked in on them and they are doing outstanding,” Higgins said. “It really was kind of that fresh start, that new beginning, and they were able to really turn their life around.”
Both players feel strongly about giving back and helping others. Not just because they have the ability to help, but to make the world a better place for everyone, one person at a time. Here’s how Robert Quinn expressed his feelings:
“When you’re blessed as tremendously as we are as athletes, and what we get paid to do and all that, and you have an opportunity to give back and bless people that have come up through some hard times, you give back and try to make their lives a little bit easier,” Quinn said. “Like I always say, if together we as a people work together, we can bring heaven on earth. So this is just my start of trying to put heaven here.”
Tavon Austin felt the same way:
“I always want to do something to help a person. You can’t help everybody in the world but at least you can get to one, and that’s where my heart has always been, so that’s what is to me. I just feel good they have a place to rest their head and call a place home.”
This was the second year that Austin and Quinn gave back like this, but if their comments are any indication, it definitely won’t be the last.
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Liz Roscher is a writer for Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email her at lizroscher@yahoo.com or follow her on twitter! Follow @lizroscher
