Last December, Casey Hayward surprised ten families from After-School All-Stars Los Angeles (ASAS-LA) with $1,000 each, making their holidays more special.
Fast forward five months later, and Hayward will be recognized as one of the program's 2019 honorees. Along with what he did for ASAS-LA by his contributions to the L.A. community, Hayward is being honored for his "exceptional leadership skills and achievement across the full spectrum of responsibility."
"Any time you can come out and help somebody, (it's good,)" Hayward said. "I'm not hurting, so I can go out here and help a lot of people as much as I can. Hopefully, more people can see it and hopefully other people can come out and help as much as possible as well."
Since joining the Chargers in 2016, Hayward has made an impact on the field, but additionally, he's made it his mission to give back off of it. But ask him what it means to give back and the team’s former Walter Payton NFL Man of the Year nominee will tell you he genuinely just loves to do it. He doesn't do it for notoriety or praise, he does it out of the good of his heart.
"I don't do it to get recognized," he mentioned. "My family and I do it just to do it. We've been in unfortunate situations before, so any time we can help people get into better situations, it's always good."
Giving back is also Hayward's extension of honoring his mother, Tish, who passed away from breast cancer in 2016. Tish started the family's non-profit, Hayward's Hands, and Casey has continued to carry on her legacy through his work. Helping families from ASAS-LA is just another example of his continuing generosity instilled in him by his mom.
"(Giving back) goes back to keeping the foundation going and keeping things going inside our family. We're just trying to reach as many people as we can."
