RENTON, Wash. — Doug Baldwin is best known for helping the Seattle Seahawks make it to two Superbowls, but after his retirement from football, Baldwin is making a whole new name for himself as a helping hand in his community.
Coming up, Doug Baldwin has two different charity events in June, including United Way's Annual Community BBQ at Renton Memorial Stadium where people can meet the Seahawks legend, as well as eat, talk and mingle.
"It's a gathering opportunity for friends, family, neighbors to get together," Baldwin said. "You know the past few years we've been dealing with a lot in our society and we've been isolated at times as well, and so this is, to me is just a perfect transition from coming out of those past few years, getting together as a community and building community once again."
Baldwin told KING 5's Jessica Janner Castro that he grew up in a community, very similar to his current one in Renton, where his mother and father were both active members.
"[Helping the community] is in my blood, it's in my nature," Baldwin said. "And you know, this is a community that accepted me, brought me in when I first got here, so if there's a way that I can use my platform and the resources that I've been blessed with to give back and support the community, that's what I'm going to do."
Baldwin even started his own charitable initiative called Champions of Change, sponsored in part by KING 5, with fellow former Seahawks Cliff Avril and Michael Bennett. The former football players decided to come together in a philanthropic effort after they kept running into each other while doing work out in the community.
"The organizations that we're working with that don't typically spend a lot of money on marketing because they're just so focused on the work that they do, so now we're going to take that on for them, we're going to highlight them, showcase their service in the community, all the data that's backed behind their impact, and then help them scale so they can continue to make that impact," Baldwin said.
Baldwin also spoke about how seriously he takes the mental well-being of both himself and his wife, so they can be their best selves for their children, which is informed by his Christian faith.
"What I've come to understand as a father now is that I have to put my wife first, and what that means is that if my wife feels safe and secure and seen and loved then she is free to give her love and the abundance of joy that she has from feeling safe seen and protected and secure, she has the ability to give that to our children and then our children thrive... I think in totality the ultimate goal here is that we're serving and taking care of the people that we love," Baldwin said.