Geneseo flag football teams up with Damar Hamlin for back-to-school charity event
Photo courtesy of GeneseoKnights
After teaming up with Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin at his annual back-to-school charity event in Buffalo, the SUNY Geneseo women’s flag football team is heading into its upcoming season inspired and ready to compete.
National Football League (NFL) star Damar Hamlin and SUNY Geneseo’s Division III flag football team recently teamed up to create a back-to-school charity event for children in need.
The Buffalo Bills player started his foundation, Chasing M’s, while he played collegiate football at the University of Pittsburgh. His mission was “to give back to his community through toy drives, kids camps, and back-to-school drives, and more,” according to the foundation’s official website.
After going into cardiac arrest during an NFL game in 2023, Hamlin received an outpour of support from fans making donations to his charity, which Hamlin has vowed to use to help others. The donations totaled over three million dollars on the same night that he suffered his cardiac event on the field.
This year, on Aug. 25, 2025, “Hamlin hosted his third annual back-to-school event with his Chasing M’s foundation,” as announced in a statement from the Buffalo Bills. Over 1,300 people came out to the event to support, including members of SUNY Geneseo’s women’s flag football team.
I had the chance to speak to two members of Geneseo’s flag football team who had the honor of attending Damar Hamlin’s event: Fiyorina Daniel and Katie Leighton. They told the story of how “his foundation reached out to our [Geneseo flag football’s] coach” Rob Currin, and invited them. The team members said that Hamlin was “super sweet” and extremely eager to connect with the community, even pausing to talk with them and other attendees of the event directly and take photos.
In addition to providing “free school supplies, haircuts, food, …and life-saving CPR instruction” to children in need, the charity event also hosted a Flag Football clinic. This clinic was led by Geneseo women’s flag football coach and “team members Emma Doney, Katie Leighton, Fiyorina Daniel, and Sadie LaDelfa,” according to the Geneseo Knights website. Leighton and Daniel said they ran through flag football drills with the children who attended the event and even got to connect with other flag football teams.
The Geneseo athletes said the event was very “welcoming” and that they were “excited to see” the love for flag football being spread. The athletes not only felt a sense of community and excitement around football at this event, but in other communities too.
Daniel commented that she is excited to see a growing love for flag football among young people. She commented that she and other teammates worked with “really young” children at the charity event’s clinic, and also mentioned how her own high school had recently added a flag football team, which inspired her love for the sport and made her passionate about being a member of “this team” here at Geneseo.
“It made me feel very ready” for the upcoming flag football season, she added. Daniel and Leighton agreed that the event created enthusiasm for the sport and the upcoming school year for both those volunteering and the children being supported by the event..
The school supplies given out to the attendees included a free backpack filled with a multitude of essential classroom items. One thousand of these bags were given to children in need. The CPR instruction was given by professionals from the National Heart Association. This event was held at Johnnie B. Wiley Stadium in Buffalo, New York, located only 20 minutes away from Highmark Stadium, where the Damar Hamlin and the Buffalo Bills play their NFL games.
Be sure to come out to support flag football at Geneseo. SUNY Geneseo’s flag football season kicks off on March 7, 2026, against Roberts Wesleyan University!