Chad Greenway donates ‘Chad’s Locker’ to Sanford Children’s Hospital

Greenway began giving back just two years after getting drafted, when he realized he could use his platform in the NFL in a positive way.

FARGO, N.D. – Former Vikings Linebacker Chad Greenway is giving back to the kids at Sanford Children’s Hospital through his foundation Lead The Way.

Greenway began giving back two years after getting drafted, when he realized he could use his platform in the NFL in a positive way.

In 2008, he and his wife Jennifer formed Chad Greenway’s Lead the Way Foundation.

“We were actually going to focus on breast cancer awareness, and we had our first kid in 2007, right when we were starting the foundation, and we realized we wanted to focus on kids and families,” Greenway said.

Almost immediately, they started Chad’s Locker, a program that donates lockers filled with laptops, gaming consoles, and toys to hospitals.

“One thing we were seeing is that there was a hole, especially back in 2007 and 2008, with technology, and getting the right technology into peoples hands,” Greenway explained.

That technology can be a much needed distraction for families, something Greenway found out early on in the programs infancy, when a child used the technology to watch one of Fox’s animated comedies.

“The parents were sort of squirmish to the fact that they had their nine-year-old watching Family Guy, which is a funny show but it has some interesting situations,” recalled Greenway “But they were like ‘Listen, whatever it takes to get us through this, because this is one of the craziest times of our life.’ He was going through radiation treatment every day, and it was a crazy time.”

“That was something they looked forward to every day, watching that show together, and laughing together. To provide some semblance of distraction, one small thing, that really felt important.”

Greenway continues to operate the program, with his latest locker going to the Sanford Children’s Hospital in Fargo, the only facility in North Dakota to have a locker.

“There are always families that are going through something. I think that’s what you realize when you have a child. That could be you tomorrow. You just don’t know and you don’t take that for granted. There is never not going to be a need, and that’s a terrible thing to talk about, but that’s just the reality we live in,” said Greenway.

There are nine lockers at Children’s hospitals around our region.