Seattle Seahawks: K.J. Wright returning to Kenya to check on wells
By Samuel Teets
Seattle Seahawks linebacker K.J. Wright is returning to Kenya a year after raising money to help build wells for local communities.
With summer in full swing, Seattle Seahawks outside linebacker K.J. Wright is returning to Kenya to check on some work he funded last year. Wright raised more than $75,000, which he used to pay for two wells and extra aid for communities in the African nation. He initially visited Kenya with some former teammates last summer to go sight-seeing.
On the team’s website, Wright said “It just hit my heart” to see a young girl from Maasai Mara lugging around dirty water to drink. Wright worked with Healing Hands International to get wells built in the village.
He raised money by donating the $25,000 he got for being the Seattle’s 2018 Walter Payton NFL Man of the Year nominee, collecting donations from caring fans, and by dipping into his own wallet. Bob Condotta of the Seattle Times reported that Wright pledged to donate $300 personally for every tackle he made in 2018. The wells cost roughly $20,000 a piece.
"“You see where they get their water from, it’s terrible what they have to do to get water, so this could be big for them,” Wright said on the Seahawks website."
World Vision International, says women and children in the developing world have to walk 3.7 miles on average to get water for their families. That water is often contaminated with diseases which could threaten their lives. Hopefully, this paints a picture of how important Wright’s wells are for the local communities.
It feels like the stigma around charitable work is that people donate money or time once and then go back to their lives. So, it’s nice to see Wright taking the opportunity to travel halfway around the world to revisit Kenya during the offseason.
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Wright often feels like a forgotten player in Seattle. When people mention the Seahawks team that beat the Denver Broncos in Super Bowl XLVIII and then lost Super Bowl XLIX to the New England Patriots, Wright is barely mentioned. He was a starter on the Legion of Boom defense, but people act like Bobby Wagner is the only player left in Seattle from that historic unit.
The recently re-signed linebacker might not be properly valued by history, but there’s a community in Kenya that knows just how great Wright is.