Jalen Hurts accepts Citizen of the Year award: ‘The city of Philadelphia has been great to me’
Gov. Josh Shapiro presented Hurts with the award for his campaign to cool Philly public schools and his work through his foundation.
The victory lap for Super Bowl MVP Jalen Hurts continued Tuesday night. But while Hurts and his fiancée, Bry Burrows, walked a red carpet and posed for photos as they entered the Fitler Club at the second annual Philadelphia Citizen of the Year awards dinner, the occasion was about everything but the Eagles.
Gov. Josh Shapiro presented Hurts with the Philadelphia Citizen’s Citizen of the Year award and said Hurts and Burrows “use their celebrity in this community to do more than just deliver a Super Bowl championship for us. They understand that kids can’t learn when they’re sweating and so they decided to install thousands of air conditioners in our Philadelphia public schools. They understand that we need to make sure more girls play sports and have everything they need, from their equipment to the sports bras that they donated …
“This guy is a champion on the field, but we are recognizing him tonight … because he gives a damn about us and he recognizes his role as a citizen here in the commonwealth of Pennsylvania.”
Hurts was given the award by the Philadelphia Citizen in part because of his aforementioned campaign to cool Philly’s schools. He was also recognized for his foundation’s work in providing financial literacy programming and supporting patients at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.
Before accepting the headline award of the night, Hurts watched as other community members were celebrated. He listened to the block captain of the year, Dianna C. Coleman, talk about the problems plaguing her Southwest Philadelphia neighborhood and how the abandoned lot that was turned into a community garden provided hope. He listened to the educator of the year, Njemele Tamala Anderson, an English teacher at Science Leadership Academy at Beeber, talk about the power of being an educator and the problems in her profession.
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He listened to CHOP doctors Stephan A. Grupp and Alexis A. Thompson, the disrupters of the year, talk about their revolutionary treatments for sickle cell disease and the attacks on research funding.
“As I sit here in this room, I see a common theme,” Hurts said. “I’ve received a ton of awards. God’s blessed me with so much in my life. This award holds a special significance for me, knowing everything that we have in common in this room. Everyone has a certain level of drive, a certain level of passion, a will about what they do. I think that’s a quality that oozes throughout the city of Philadelphia — tough and gritty people that don’t take ‘no’ for an answer.
“I don’t know if I’d be here without a lot of individuals like yourselves in this room today throughout my development, throughout my transition to manhood.”
Hurts officially launched the Jalen Hurts Foundation last summer, but his work in the community predated the launch.
“I think the most important quality that we all share in this room is that we’re all in pursuit of something greater than ourselves,” Hurts said.
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“The city of Philadelphia has been great to me. I know I’ve given it my heart and my soul daily, and it means the world to have all these different avenues. … This holds a special place in my heart, and the pursuit of what we’re doing, everyone in this room, it’s more than just on the field but off the field. That pursuit to uplift those around us and create those opportunities continues.”