Gather around, NFL draft picks. Grab your shoulder pads and new playbooks and please find a seat. There are a couple of people you need to meet.
Our first speaker today is Sarah Blackwell. She is 81 years old and has lived in the same home in Turners Station for more than six decades. Her husband, Reggie, worked at the Sparrows Point shipyard and later Bethlehem Steel. They bought their house at the southern end of Dundalk -- the oldest black neighborhood in the area -- when they married, and together they raised two children there. After 59 years of marriage, Reggie died three years ago.
"So many things around here needed to be done," Blackwell said, with a checklist that includes everything from the floors to the windows to the yard. "But I'm not able to get it done, not financially, not physically."
Right now, NFL draft picks, you're probably wondering what an 81-year-old woman in a distant corner of Baltimore County has to do with you and your budding football career. You probably have other things to worry about -- a big-screen television, your new ride, what number you'll wear on your back next fall. But just sit still a bit longer and let's meet our next speaker.
Derrick Mason is a wide receiver with the Ravens and is entering his 12th season in the NFL. You learn a few things in that kind of time. Sure, you pick up on which cornerbacks are breathing heavy by the third quarter, but you also learn what it means to be a pro athlete, which is why Mason is here today.
While you were huddling with your family and friends watching last weekend's draft and waiting for the phone to ring, Mason was out in Turners Station. His team Saturday was called Rebuilding Together Baltimore, and they were going to homes like Blackwell's, doing the important work that, for a variety of reasons, some homeowners can't do themselves.
More on this in a second, NFL draft picks. Ask yourself why a million-dollar athlete such as Mason would spend a beautiful weekend in spring working on a stranger's home.
Here, I'll let him explain:
"It's been truly a blessing for me to be able to give to a city that has given me so much the last three years," Mason said. "As a player, I think that's ultimately all you want to do. While you're playing this game, what did you do -- whether it be in the short term or long term -- what did you do to help out the community that you were in?"
