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Speaker 1: Welcome to Playmakers. Everyone. I'm Haley Ellwood. It is November,

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Speaker 1: the month of Giving, and we have an extremely special

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Speaker 1: episode today because joining me is Anna Lindsley, wife of

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Speaker 1: Charger Center Corey Linsley, to talk about all the amazing

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Speaker 1: things they are doing in terms of giving back. Anna,

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Speaker 1: thank you so much for coming on. Thank you so

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Speaker 1: much for having me. So you guys are new to

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Speaker 1: the Chargers, but you have not waited in terms of

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Speaker 1: making an impact. We'll talk about a lot of the

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Speaker 1: different things that Corey and you are doing, but one

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Speaker 1: of the things is that Corey is participating in the

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Speaker 1: Chargers Community Corner program, which ultimately gives some of the

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Speaker 1: best seats at SOFI Stadium to nonprofit groups and community

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Speaker 1: organizations overall. Why is giving back such a huge part

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Speaker 1: of your family? I think growing up in Northeast Ohio

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Speaker 1: the Midwest, it was always for both of us, just

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Speaker 1: something that was kind of like bilt into what our

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Speaker 1: families did. And my high school motto was men and

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Speaker 1: women for others. So that's just something that's like always

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Speaker 1: resonated with me personally, and obviously given our circumstance with

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Speaker 1: Corey being in the NFL and having a platform to

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Speaker 1: really bring awareness to some amazing causes and remind people

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Speaker 1: how important giving back is. That something we just didn't

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Speaker 1: want to let fall to the wayside, and so we

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Speaker 1: just jump it in. It's a good way of putting it.

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Speaker 1: And one of the organizations that you guys worked so

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Speaker 1: closely with is COSA, which is court appointed special advocates.

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Speaker 1: The lindsays are teaming up with the Chargers Impact Fund

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Speaker 1: to donate sixty thousand dollars to COSTA La Cosa OC.

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Speaker 1: Why did you guys want to do this? So when

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Speaker 1: we got to Green Bay, we got involved with COSTA.

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Speaker 1: There is a national organization, so there are programs all

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Speaker 1: across the US, which is awesome, and they support abuse

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Speaker 1: and neglected kids who are protected by the court system.

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Speaker 1: So when a child is, you know, being looked after

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Speaker 1: by the court based on something that's maybe happened at

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Speaker 1: home or you know, they're moving through foster care, the

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Speaker 1: judge can assign an advocate who would visit the children

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Speaker 1: once a week and just kind of check in with

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Speaker 1: them and then truly be their voice in the courtroom.

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Speaker 1: Children under twelve can't speak on their own behalf, so

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Speaker 1: one of the things as advocates you get to, you know,

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Speaker 1: make the child's wishes known and speak with them and

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Speaker 1: kind of see how things are going weekend and week out,

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Speaker 1: and just having that constant adult presence throughout the duration

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Speaker 1: of their case is super important for these kids as

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Speaker 1: they maybe move from home to home, maybe they go

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Speaker 1: back with their birth parents. There are a lot of

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Speaker 1: change that they're going through at no fault of their own,

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Speaker 1: and we know just from past experiences and studies that

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Speaker 1: a constant, caring adult is really important for these kids.

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Speaker 1: So in terms of that, you became advocates and why

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Speaker 1: did you guys choose to do that? So when we

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Speaker 1: got involved with COASA, one of the things when you

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Speaker 1: are it's really easy to be a spokesperson and there

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Speaker 1: are so many people that speak on behalf of many

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Speaker 1: many organizations. But for us personally, we were like, we're

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Speaker 1: not going to get up and tell someone to do

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Speaker 1: something that we're not doing ourselves. And when you actually

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Speaker 1: get your feet wet and become a volunteer, I feel

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Speaker 1: Corey feels, you know, we have so much more to

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Speaker 1: say about it because we've done it and you really

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Speaker 1: get to experience, you know, everything that it entails. And

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Speaker 1: so basically, if you're gonna talk the talk, walk the walk.

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Speaker 1: That was kind of our mentality and we really I mean,

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Speaker 1: it's been an amazing experience for us as a couple.

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Speaker 1: And you know, now we've gotten family involved in friends

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Speaker 1: and and that's really special to us. That is really

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Speaker 1: really special. What was that process like? So we did

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Speaker 1: our training, It was thirty five hours. We did it

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Speaker 1: one off season when we were in Wisconsin. We loved it. Actually,

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Speaker 1: we were kind of sad when it ended. And every

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Speaker 1: program does it a little bit differently, and certain states have,

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Speaker 1: you know, different requirements. Just something to be aware of.

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Speaker 1: But we really learned a lot about protective services, what

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Speaker 1: a social worker does, you know, what constitutes abuse and neglect.

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Speaker 1: We took a look at some of our own personal

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Speaker 1: family dynamics and how that plays into a child success

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Speaker 1: in school and just life in general. So it was

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Speaker 1: a time that we got to do a lot of

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Speaker 1: reflecting and she realized like how lucky we were to

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Speaker 1: have loving, caring parents. You obviously don't get to choose

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Speaker 1: your mom and dad. You don't get to choose who

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Speaker 1: comes in and you're in and out of your life.

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Speaker 1: As a child. So we learned a lot. Corey will

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Speaker 1: tell you, and I think he said it in interviews before.

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Speaker 1: He's like, I didn't even know what a social worker

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Speaker 1: was until I did training, And that's true, and that's

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Speaker 1: a testament to, you know, the way he was raised.

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Speaker 1: And unfortunately, there's many many children that interface with social

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Speaker 1: workers on you know, a regular basis. So I think

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Speaker 1: it's just remarkable that you guys worked with them in

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Speaker 1: Green Bay. And then, like I said, this is your

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Speaker 1: first year out here with the Chargers, but you're kind

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Speaker 1: of just diving right in. You mentioned that reflection process,

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Speaker 1: and you're both parents to two young boys. But what

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Speaker 1: else did you maybe learn through your time working with

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Speaker 1: COSSA and maybe what you kind of continue to learn

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Speaker 1: working through them as well. So our first big case

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Speaker 1: was actually before we had children, and I think the

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Speaker 1: biggest thing, you know, seeing those kids every week, the

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Speaker 1: relationship that we built, and just you know, realizing a

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Speaker 1: few things that I think we've taken into how we

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Speaker 1: parent our children. One is children are super resilient and

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Speaker 1: they just crave love and attention like you don't. That's

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Speaker 1: really all they need. And my mom has told me

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Speaker 1: that since I was a young kid too, just like,

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Speaker 1: if you can give your kids anything, just love them

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Speaker 1: and give them your undivided attention. And I think especially

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Speaker 1: when you're seeing these children in a short amount of

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Speaker 1: time and not every single day, you know that hour

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Speaker 1: is a really special, you know hour with them. And

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Speaker 1: so that's something I you know, try to remind myself

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Speaker 1: of as a parent now to my kids. And also

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Speaker 1: to relate to a child, you have to speak their

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Speaker 1: language and kind of get on their level, and for

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Speaker 1: most kids that is play. So in a lot of ways,

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Speaker 1: it was fun for us, like that hour that we

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Speaker 1: spent with our kids every week in Green Bay, it

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Speaker 1: was like, all right, what are we gonna do. We're

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Speaker 1: gonna pay pupkins, We're gonna like go to the park

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Speaker 1: and play football and just kind of being kids again ourselves,

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Speaker 1: because that's really how you build a rapport and trust

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Speaker 1: with them. It's what are they interested in? And then

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Speaker 1: that's you know, as the weeks go by, that's sort

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Speaker 1: of when you get to know them a little better

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Speaker 1: and maybe some of the more like deeper emotions and

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Speaker 1: you know, feelings about their situations come out. It's not

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Speaker 1: like you're just giving them a twenty minute interview every

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Speaker 1: time you see right right, No, that makes a ton

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Speaker 1: of sense. Now, as I mentioned, November is the month

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Speaker 1: of giving, and there's a really cool fan component to

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Speaker 1: this as well, and through Giving Tuesday, which is November thirtieth,

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Speaker 1: Chargers fans, fans of any team can get involved with

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Speaker 1: this donation. How can they do that? So if you

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Speaker 1: just go to Chargers dot com slash cosa, they're a

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Speaker 1: lambing page right there, you can make a selection whether

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Speaker 1: you like to support LA or OC. One of the

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Speaker 1: reasons we wanted to support both is obviously the charters

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Speaker 1: practicing Costa Mesa, and a lot of the players live

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Speaker 1: here in Orange County. But obviously the team is LA,

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Speaker 1: and there's a really high need in LA as well.

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Speaker 1: And so either organization is doing wonderful things for many

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Speaker 1: many children. So I can't go wrong wrong either way. Obviously, Well,

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Speaker 1: we're going to match the donations, which is really exciting,

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Speaker 1: and we really just wanted to make as big of

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Speaker 1: an impact as we could in this short amount of time.

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Speaker 1: And this time of year is always a great time

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Speaker 1: to remember, you know, those who are a little bit

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Speaker 1: more vulnerable and need a little bit or help. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: there's no better time to do that. And then lastly,

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Speaker 1: and if someone is listening to this, I know you

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Speaker 1: describe the process a little bit and the amount of

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Speaker 1: training that goes into it, but maybe what's the best

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Speaker 1: way if someone wants to be a Costa advocate. So

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Speaker 1: it's really easy. You can google Costa. Most of I

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Speaker 1: was just looking at LA's website. It's rare, you know,

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Speaker 1: in bold letters. Becoming a volunteer. One thing that Corey

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Speaker 1: and I always speak to is there's usually such a

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Speaker 1: need for male volunteers. So if you know someone that

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Speaker 1: has the ability to be a volunteer and as a male,

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Speaker 1: A lot of these kids don't have, you know, a

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Speaker 1: male figure in their lives and that's really important. Our case,

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Speaker 1: we had two little boys and I can tell you

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Speaker 1: like having Corey there was was you know, amazing for them.

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Speaker 1: And so yeah, you can look up Costa in your area,

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Speaker 1: go to the website. Usually there's a contact us. Just

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Speaker 1: go learn more here about it. If you don't have

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Speaker 1: you know, if it's not your cup of tea, that's fine.

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Speaker 1: If you don't have the time to give right now,

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Speaker 1: maybe it's something you do a year from now and

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Speaker 1: we completely understand that with two young children and moving

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Speaker 1: across the country, there's always ways to give back, and yeah,

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Speaker 1: we we just really encourage people to look into it. Well,

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Speaker 1: you guys are doing such amazing work. Thank you so

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Speaker 1: much for taking the time to talk about this today,

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Speaker 1: and once again that link if you guys want to

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Speaker 1: donate anyone listening is chargers dot com slash cosa Anna.

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Speaker 1: Thank you so much, We really really appreciate it. Thanks

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Speaker 1: for having me