AJ Francis is hosting his 8th annual food drive, recruiting Shawne Merriman to make Christmas a little bit better.
The TNA star is hosting his eighth annual canned food drive in 2024. The University of Maryland is also advertising Francis’ event along with a coat drive with Shawne Merriman.
These Maryland Football Community Drives have proved very popular over the years, with numerous charities benefitting. The pair featured together on TV earlier this year, where they joined forces to attack Joe Hendry in TNA. The former NFL players and Maryland alumni now join forces again, this time to do some good instead.
On November 16th, Shawne Merriman is hosting a coat drive collecting clothes for homeless people. This is in aid of the Lights On Foundation for homeless veterans in the United States. A week later on November 23, AJ Francis will host the annual canned food drive in benefit of Sarah’s House, who support families facing homelessness in the area.
Maryland Football promoted the drives on Twitter, while AJ Francis posted a photo of himself and Merrimen to drum up support. He wrote “Me and My Brother @shawnemerriman CARE ABOUT OUR COMMUNITY”.
AJ Francis on giving back to his community
Francis previously spoke to WrestleZone about where the idea came from and how important it is to give back to his community.
“My dad has been really big in my life, not just with athletics. My dad’s a basketball and football coach, and obviously, football was the way that I changed my life. He was also big on giving back to the community. We would do this canned food drive. We would do trunk or treat at Halloween time, we would do toy drives for Christmas,” Francis explained. “We’d do back-to-school drives in the summer. We would go visit people in prison, and talk to them and try to uplift them while they’re in there serving their time. We did a lot of things in our community that I’m very grateful for my dad having the foresight to have me do.
“Seven years ago, I decided to make this event my own. I’ve done other events,” Francis noted. “I did a charity basketball game for Sarah’s House, and we raised, I want to say, like $5,000 with the charity basketball game, but that was just a one-off. I need to do the charity basketball game again, just my schedule is too crazy to fit that in. But every year, for the past seven years I was like, I’m going to make the canned food drive my thing.”
Francis also credited Merriman as another influence, noting that he saw Merriman’s coat drive as a good example and he remains grateful he is in a spot to help out.
“A lot of times, people bring food directly from their tailgate that they haven’t used. Most people go to the store, buy stuff, and bring it to the game. But a lot of people bring stuff straight from the tailgate. To be able to have that opportunity to provide for the less fortunate in my community. Sarah’s House is literally like five minutes from where I grew up, where my sister grew up, where my dad grew up, where my nana still lives. So it’s a really big part of our community, and I’m very grateful that I’m able to give back to it.”
