London, ON – "Giving back to those who are less fortunate is a key value we want to engrain in all of the players on our team," that from Mustangs Football offensive coordinator Geatan Richard and it is obvious that message has gotten through to their players, especially 1st year recruit Curtis Fortune.

The Fullback is using his spare time to try and help the homeless in London by taking a pledge to collect over 55,000 pairs of socks with a local non-profit organization called 519 Pursuit. Fortune is nearing the end of a 6 week campaign to collect as many socks as possible that will then be distributed to those less fortunate in the London area.

"After the socks are collected the outreach teams at 519pursuit take care packages out and meet with people in what they call a friendship based approach where they don't just give them the package but they take the time to try and get to know the people a little more and understand their situation," said Fortune "I've been out a couple of times and it's a really great experience to talk to the people receiving the care package and they're just so grateful,"

Given his character, the coaching staff isn't surprised that Fortune has taken on this community-based project.

"He is everything you could want in a student athlete," said Richards of Fortune. "He works his butt off at everything he does and never has any excuses, just looks to keep getting better and better and I look at him and wish I had everything figured out like he does at his age in all aspects of his life as far as academics, athletics, and obviously community engagement."

Even though he is new to the Mustangs family Fortune is already recruiting other members of the football roster to get on board and help.

"I talked to Coach Richard who was on board with the idea right away and then I approached the senior players on the team who immediately offered to help in any way that they can," said Fortune. "It's been going so incredibly well with the number of socks we have collected and there is still time for more to come in."

"We're so proud to see examples like this where our student athletes take it upon themselves to take part in community outreach initiatives like this and we will support them however we can. " said Richard.

Even though Fortunes 6 week pledge to collect socks is nearing an end, he already is planning to get involved again to help those less fortunate.

"I'll definitely try to find more ways to utilize the platform we have as Mustangs Football players to gather support for these kinds of community projects to help those less fortunate," said Fortune "It's so great to have the support of our players and coaching staff to these kinds of projects and I have already talked to them about how we can do that in the future."

For more information on the 519Pursuit or to make a donation go to https://519pursuit.ca