Sermon Illustrations
Celebrities Help Sponsor Underfunded Olympians
At a moment when Veronica Fraley should’ve been focused only on the task ahead of her, instead she was preoccupied with issues thousands of miles away.
Fraley wrote on X, “I compete in the Olympic Games TOMORROW, and can’t even pay my rent.” Fraley was a graduate student at Vanderbilt University who’d recently set a school record in the discus event. “My school only sent about 75% of my rent while they pay football players (who haven’t won anything) enough to buy new cars and houses.”
Fraley’s post caught the attention of Flavor Flav, co-founder of the legendary hip-hop group Public Enemy. Flav had became an Olympic booster and enthusiast for the women’s water polo team after he found out how much they’d achieved and the economic hardships they had to overcome. Flav told NPR:
When the women aren't in the water playing water polo and everything, you know, they're home, working active jobs - one, two and three jobs. These girls are out here busting their butt to make the United States look good. So, when they're out here playing and practicing, it takes them away from their work. So, I said to myself, why not step in and try to help these girls out?
That resulted in Flav committing to a five-year sponsorship agreement with USA Water Polo, making undisclosed financial donations as well as several high-profile appearances at events and using his social media platform to promote the team.
So, when Flav saw Fraley’s post, he was already primed to help. “I gotchu,” Flav responded on X. “DM me and I’ll send payment TODAY so you don’t have to worry bout it TOMORROW … and imma be rooting for ya tomorrow LETZ GO!!!”
Alexis Ohanian, co-founder of the website Reddit and husband to tennis legend Serena Williams, quickly jumped into the thread. After offering to split the rent, Ohanian did much more, sending more than $7,000 via Cash App.
“This is the power of community,” said Flav in a responding tweet afterwards. “Now she can focus on getting that hardware.”