Many professional athletes are involved in some capacity with Compassion International and have served with the nonprofit in foreign countries. But until the Atlanta Falcons took a large contingent to the Dominican Republic in March, no professional sports organization had traveled as a group in partnership with Compassion.
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Falcons president Greg Beadles, head coach Raheem Morris, seven players, plus staff and spouses went on the trip with Compassion, which partners with local churches to help release children from poverty. The group spent four days in the country meeting with church partners, participating in organized activities with the children, like a baseball game and football drills, and visited the homes of mothers and children facing struggles.
“One of my biggest takeaways from the trip was just the guys that went on it and seeing their hearts for Christ and seeing them outside of the football building and in a situation that can sometimes be a little uncomfortable, because of the level of poverty that you’re seeing,” Falcons punter Bradley Pinion, who spearheaded the trip with his wife Kaeleigh, told Sports Spectrum. “But then, seeing how my teammates just opened up and the joy that came on their face, and just seeing them serve and serving alongside them to the neediest of families in the Dominican Republic, it’s just something that I’ll never forget.”
The @AtlantaFalcons are making a difference beyond the football field! They recently visited the DR to see firsthand how Compassion is helping children escape poverty.
"The lives of these kids are being changed, and we've been changed too," said Bradley Pinion, punter for the… pic.twitter.com/0M2KMrZamx
— Compassion International (@compassion) April 7, 2025
Pinion has been serving with Compassion for many years. In 2023, he and Kaeleigh traveled to Tanzania to visit survival centers they helped fund, which provide critical prenatal care and access to food, clean water and medicine to mothers and babies.
This experience led to him launching “Punts for Purpose” later that year, for which he partnered with other punters around the NFL to donate $1,000 to Compassion for every punt that landed inside the 20-yard line, in support of 500 child survival centers.
When envisioning this trip to the Dominican Republic, he felt compelled to invite his teammates and other members of the organization to experience what Compassion is doing. However, he told Sports Spectrum, he was admittedly a little nervous to ask Beadles about the team partnering with Compassion, but he’s ultimately glad he did.
“It was just incredible to see, honestly, God in all of it and how it, from one simple [act of] stepping out in faith and being undaunted, led to me seeing teammates in a different light, and seeing different people within our organization in a different light, and our head coach in a different light, and our president in a different light,” Pinion said. “God has used that to draw people not only closer to Him, but also draw them to Compassion’s mission and the work that Compassion does.”
Beadles called the experience “amazing.”
“We’ve never done anything like this before and I’m so grateful we had this opportunity,” Beadles said in a team press release. “We are a values-driven organization both on and off the field, and we’ve always wanted to be a positive, impactful force for good in communities.”
Morris echoed a similar sentiment.
“It’s what we preach every day,” he said. “When you get a chance to go live it, it means everything.”
Compassion President and CEO Jimmy Mellado commended the Falcons for their willingness to serve as a team. He said the Falcons organization is “dedicated to excellence and sportsmanship on the field,” but it went a step further because these efforts off the field were “lifesaving.”
“You can tell when a team has a culture: when they’re unified, when they’re powerful,” Mellado said in a video recap. “There are some teams that have the best athletes in the world, but they don’t ever reach their potential. But when you put ability plus culture plus that glue that puts you together, now that team is unstoppable.”
According to Compassion, 49% of households in the Dominican Republic live on less than $3.40 a day. Children in these communities are often exposed to “serious consequences of poverty,” including crime and gang violence, drug activity, human trafficking and other forms of exploitation.
Through its partnership with 234 church partners in the Dominican Republic, Compassion serves more than 62,000 children in its fight against poverty and its side effects.
In addition to its child development program, Compassion offers age-tailored child protection training to all enrolled children, fostering a secure environment where kids and teens can engage in sports and other activities as positive alternatives to crime.
“It’s what we are passionate about,” Pinion told Compassion. “We just want to bring other people along because we see the impact Compassion’s having. We want other people to see it, support it and give that same fire that we have.”
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