
There are fewer stories in this world better than an athlete doing everything possible to aid their community through charitable means.
That is precisely what Landon Robinson set out to do for the city of Cincinnati even before being selected by the Bengals in the draft. The defensive tackle launched his Landon Robinson Foundation before being in the NFL for even a year.
Robinson described on First Word With James Rapien how he's always been passionate about service due to his Navy background as a second lieutenant.
"It was very quick, honestly before I was even drafted, I was already working on it," Robinson expressed. "As a second lieutenant in the United States Marine Corps, service is something that I've always been big on."
The focus of Robinson's foundation is providing mental health support resources for teenagers. He added that whether it be locally or from a national scale he wants to make any positive impact for those struggling.
"I just want to make an impact on the community, whether that's locally, or nationally one day, but just always make an impact," Robinson said of the scale of his foundation's goal.
"Something that's always been apparent to me is the importance of mental health, the importance of teen suicide, having that advocacy for that is something that's super important. So that's something my foundation has been huge on, just creating a safe space, creating events for the community to talk about it."
Robinson dove into why he moved so quickly to form the venture.
"Unfortunately throughout my entire life, mental health has been something that I've always seen," Robinson said of his mental health experiences. "Obviously everyone struggles with mental health at some point in your life, and unfortunately a lot of people choose the wrong path and they choose the path that is the worst path."
"So I'm just giving people those resources, my foundation also has a physical mission to do certain events and go out and run, or go on the football field, or go do military exercises just to have that outlet."
You can donate to the Landon Robinson Foundation, and even remain up to date on any events hosted by the foundation at landonrobinson.org.
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