Northern Dutch

Dion Dawkins adopted a school. Not a classroom. The whole school, the one in Buffalo where kids go when they have run out of other options. He has been the Buffalo Bills nominee for the NFL Man of the Year four years in a row. Here is where it started. He grew up in Rahway, New Jersey. When it snowed he would set his alarm early, get up, and go knock on doors asking if people wanted their driveway shoveled. They started calling him the Shnowman. He has it tattooed across his chest. Here is how he explains the name. "I call myself the Shnowman because they're the spark of the outside." He was also a Boys and Girls Club kid. That is where he went after school for somewhere safe to be, and where he says he found structure and friendship. They have since put him in their Alumni Hall of Fame. He went to Rahway High School, then to Temple, and the Bills took him 63rd overall in 2017. He has made five straight Pro Bowls at left tackle. Now the part that explains the rest of it. "I had to step up and be a father to my brother's kids for a little while." "That inspired me." He started a foundation and named it Dion's Dreamers. In 2023 he adopted The Academy School in Buffalo, the district's alternative school, and he keeps showing up there to sit with the students. He also runs something called Shnow Day. Classrooms apply and he pays for the entire trip. More than 450 classrooms across Western New York put in for it. One group he took to the Aquarium of Niagara. The players union named him its Community MVP for it. On one community day in Buffalo he put in 25,000 dollars and helped hand out about 2,000 hot meals, along with clothing, produce, and bikes and helmets for kids. He did not forget the other place either. He gave Rahway High School 14,500 dollars worth of sports gear, and at a kickball tournament back home he handed out three scholarships of 2,500 dollars each. A student once told him he was his hero. Dawkins said that meant the world to him. Here is the simplest version of why he does any of it. "The simple answer is I'm addicted to seeing organic smiles." Here is what he says Buffalo itself has become to him. "They've graduated to real family." And here is what he says he actually wants. "Every child having at least one positive adult in their lives to look up to." He is 32 years old and he protects the blind side of one of the best teams in football. The kid who used to knock on doors in the snow is still knocking. He just adopted a whole school to do it.