University of North Carolina Athletics
Lucas: Davis, Tar Heels Spread Holiday Cheer
December 18, 2007 | Football
Dec. 18, 2007
By Adam Lucas
This is the time of year when Butch Davis spends plenty of time in the homes of strangers.
But Monday, his mission was a little different.
December and January are important recruiting months, the time of year when Davis and his coaches fan out across the country to bring in the next haul of high school prospects who will make up his second Signing Day class in February (for more on what's involved in those visits, check TarHeelBlue.com over the next week). In-home visits are an important part of that recruiting process.
But the in-home visit Davis made Monday was important for a different reason. Since the beginning of the season, Tar Heel football players have been asked to donate some of their weekend money to the Share Your Christmas program, an athletic department-wide initiative that provides presents for underprivileged families.
Programs across the department were provided with names and wish lists of families in the Durham County area. The student-athletes purchase and wrap gifts matching those wish lists. This year, UNC student-athletes adopted a total of 14 families through Durham Social Services.
"Our guys were asked to make contributions over the course of the fall," Davis said. "They gave $5 or $10 when they could out of their weekend money, and they raised around $1,300. The fact that they're giving themselves make it that much more special. It's not just a case of the athletic department writing a check and telling them to go buy some toys. They're doing it themselves."
They're not just buying and wrapping--they're also delivering. Davis was joined by Andre Williams and a passel of players to make Monday's deliveries. The first recipients were watching an afternoon showing of SpongeBob when suddenly there was a knock at their door.
"Hi," a tall man said. "My name's Butch Davis, and we've got some things we'd like to bring inside if it's OK."
Several handfuls of gifts later, the once-empty den was packed with presents.
With a smile and a nod towards his children, the father said, "We appreciate this so much, and you can't imagine how much they appreciate it."
 Kennedy Tinsley was one of several Tar Heels who helped deliver presents.  |
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"We want to let everyone in the community know we support them," said Jonathan Smith, one of the players who helped deliver gifts. "We want to show our faces out there and let them know we're part of the community and we care."
Sometimes, the caring even transcends the language barrier. The primary language at the next stop--where the family was bundled in winter coats on a day when the Chapel Hill high was 41 degrees, because their home didn't have heat--was Spanish, but it didn't take long for the two groups to establish communication.
The Tar Heel sleigh rolled up just as two older children were coming home from school; their wide smiles and endless hugs made their appreciation clear.
"It's so much fun to make those kids happy," said Kennedy Tinsley, who organized the event. "It seemed like they wanted to thank us 50 times before we left. It makes you feel good that we probably helped 20 people have a better Christmas today."
Davis has been touched by community service at several of his coaching stops; one particularly memorable visit came during his tenure at Miami, when his team visited a shelter called the Gladstone House. Since then, he's made community involvement an important part of his program, so much so that he said he'd support a scholarship amendment requiring recipients to perform at least one community service per semester.
But making service voluntary has a way of paying off.
"The players who are out here doing this will get more out of it than the people who received the gifts," Davis said. "It'll make a very genuine, warm feeling in their heart that they were a part of making Christmas special for some people who would not otherwise have had that opportunity."
Adam Lucas most recently collaborated on a behind-the-scenes look at Carolina Basketball with Wes Miller. The Road To Blue Heaven is available now. Lucas's other books on Carolina basketball include The Best Game Ever, which chronicles the 1957 national championship season, Going Home Again, which focuses on Roy Williams's return to Carolina, and Led By Their Dreams, a collaboration with Steve Kirschner and Matt Bowers on the 2005 championship team.
