The annual Chiefs Charity Game took place on Saturday, continuing a long tradition of philanthropy that has leveraged Kansas City's passion for professional football to serve the greater community as a whole.
The event – which has partnered with a variety of charitable organizations over the years – has raised more than $15 million over its four decades of existence, with approximately $7 million being raised over the last 13 years alone.
Annually the first preseason game of the year at GEHA Field at Arrowhead, the Chiefs Charity Game, which celebrated its 40th edition on Saturday, has grown into the marquee event of its type in the NFL, but like most great institutions, its beginnings were humble.
In fact, the concept behind the event has its roots in a simple conversation between local business leaders who were eager to make a difference for children in Kansas City.
As longtime Chiefs executive Jack Steadman recalled in the book "Building from the Heart," Chiefs Founder Lamar Hunt was investigating ways to help children in need throughout the Kansas City area in 1984. At the same time, Bill Dunn Sr. of JE Dunn Construction was seeking funding to match a Mabee Foundation "challenge grant" for the Niles Home for Children, which is now known as KVC Health Systems.
The Mabee Foundation, which has assisted non-profit organizations since 1948, issues "challenge grants" as a means of ensuring that the remainder of a potential project is sufficiently funded. If the rest of the money needed isn't raised, the grant is cancelled.
Hunt, Steadman and Dunn soon realized that they could achieve their respective goals by partnering together, and just like that, what we now recognize as the first Chiefs Charity Game was born.
"Much like the Hunt family, my grandfather, Bill Dunn Sr. and uncle, Bob Dunn, established a remarkable legacy of giving back to our community with the love of our hometown Chiefs," said Timothy Dunn, Chairman & Chief Investment Officer of JE Dunn Construction. "They take great pride in being one of the original organizers of the first Chiefs Charity Game. JE Dunn and our family are incredibly honored to have been a part of empowering and supporting the community through this great initiative over the past 40 years."
Jackson County CASA, which provides legal advocacy services to abused and neglected children in the Jackson County Family Court system, kicked off a three-year term as the game's beneficiary on Saturday. Most recently, the Metropolitan Organization to Counter Sexual Assault (MOCSA), the game's beneficiary from 2021 through 2023, raised $1.4 million over its three-year tenure.
The event is another meaningful example of local institutions and community leaders coming together to make the Kansas City area a better place to live for everyone. What began as a conversation between Hunt, Steadman and Dunn all those years ago has benefitted countless lives, and as the Chiefs Charity Game continues to grow, the best still may be yet to come.
