With a tip of the hat, NFL player impacts people with a powerful bond of friendship
Six residents of the Village of Merici in Indianapolis—a Catholic-inspired place of hope and growth for adults with disabilities—showcase the hats and T-shirts that are part of a fundraising effort led by Cathedral High School grad and Cincinnati Bengals football player Ted Karras that has raised nearly $400,000 for the Village. The residents are Mary McClamroch, left, Jason Renie, Trese Mascari, Sarah Boyd, Angie Cain and Steve Mailloux. (Submitted photo)
By John Shaughnessy
If you have ever needed a friend, or been a friend to someone in need, you will appreciate the beauty of what Ted Karras is doing.
You may even marvel at how a small yet meaningful token of his friendship—a hat—is making such a huge difference to a Catholic-inspired place in Indianapolis that fosters friendships and a sense of community to people who desperately need and want those gifts in their lives.
Through the sales of his personally-designed hats in the past seven months, Karras—a 2011 graduate of Cathedral High School in Indianapolis and now an offensive lineman for the Cincinnati Bengals—has helped raise nearly $400,000 for the Village of Merici, an organization that provides housing, support services and educational opportunities for adults with developmental disabilities.
Named in honor of St. Angela Merici, the Village holds a special place in Karras’ heart for the hope and the promise it gives people.
“It provides such a wholesome environment for these people to live in, and it provides independence which otherwise would be hard to achieve,” he says. “These are adult men and women who want to be social, who want their independence, who want to have friends and activities. It does so much good, and it’s the honor of a lifetime to just be a small part of it.”
Still, there’s another reason that connects the 30-year-old Karras to the Village. That connection reflects a time in his young life when he was longing for a community that would feel like home to him.
‘A tight-knit group of friends’
Karras’ approach to friendship has been shaped by living in 18 different communities across America in his
30 years of life.
It’s the result of growing up as the son of a football coach who has coached in many places—and it’s also the result of his own playing career in the National Football League that has led to two Super Bowl rings.
Through it all, he has learned two truths from always being “the new kid in town” growing up: You long to find a home with people who will welcome you, accept you and befriend you. And you will never forget the people who gave you that feeling.
That’s why Karras has such an appreciation for the Village and another community in Indianapolis.
It all started when a coaching move for his dad led Karras to St. Matthew the Apostle School in Indianapolis as an eighth-grade student. There, he was immediately embraced by a group of friends and their families.
“The Indianapolis Catholic community really welcomed me in and gave me the feeling of a hometown that I had yet to feel up to that point in my life,” he says. “One of the really unique factors of that community is the lifelong bonds that people form with the friends they made in middle school and high school.
“I’ve yet to see another place in America where there’s such a tight-knit group of friends who have been friends since they were 10 or so. We’ve been friends for 20 years now. Not only friends, but intimate confidants and buddies.”
One of those friends became his introduction to the difference that the Village of Merici makes.
‘I really can’t think of a place that does more good’
Karras calls Matt Renie “my best friend.” They became close at St. Matthew, with Karras remembering how welcomed Renie made him feel. Their bond grew even tighter during their four years at Cathedral, years in which they volunteered together at the Village, each for personal reasons.
Karras has family members who have a history of autism. And Renie’s oldest sibling, Jason, has intellectual and developmental disabilities. Their mother, Colleen Renie, is also one of the founders and is now the executive director of the Village of Merici. And there’s a beautiful story of how she and her husband Joe brought Jason into their lives as a toddler shortly after they were married 45 years ago.
“Jason is 44 now,” says Colleen about the oldest of their four children. “He was a patient of mine at Crossroads Rehabilitation Center when I first got out of college. He was a foster child, and the Children’s Bureau was not going to try to place him. He had developmental delays. For two years, he wasn’t talking and crawling.
“I told my husband there’s this little boy at work that they’re not going to try to place. I told him I think we could do him some good and be a great, loving family for him. We applied for adoption and were able to bring him into our family.”
As a teenager, Karras saw that same approach of love and care being shared with the residents of the Village.
The power of that impact stayed with him as he continued playing football at the University of Illinois—and as he has carved out a seven-year pro career that has included seasons with the Bengals, the Miami Dolphins and the New England Patriots, earning two Super Bowl rings with that team.
“I heard people’s stories and how the Village was affecting them,” Karras says. “I really can’t think of a place that does more good than the Village.”
That belief led to his touching gift to the Village in the past year, a gift that had its start in a simple sharing of a small yet meaningful token of his friendship—a hat.
‘It’s just a sign of my friendship’
When Karras joined the Bengals last year, he wanted a way to make an immediate connection with his new teammates. So he personally designed a hat with “Cincy” emblazoned across its front.
“It was a token of my affection and friendship, and that I want to continue to grow our relationship,” Karras says. “The guys really responded to it. They wore the hats everywhere.”
Karras also gave one to Renie last summer when he came to visit him in Cincinnati.
“It was a really cool hat, and I said, ‘This is awesome,’ ” Renie recalls. “He said, ‘I made it. It’s just a sign of my friendship. If you’re my friend, you get a hat.’
“I wore the hat to a Bengals’ game, and I got stopped by multiple people saying, ‘I’ve seen the players wearing that hat. Where can I get one?’ ”
The word soon spread that Karras had made them, and the requests from fans about how to buy one increased dramatically.
The interest became so huge that beat reporters for the Bengals started asking Karras about the hats, just so they could pass along the information to their readers and followers. Wanting to focus on the Bengals’ push to the playoffs in November, Karras tired of questions about the hat.
“Almost out of a frustration, I said, ‘We are going to sell it, and it’s going to be for charity, and the only charity I support is the Village of Merici.’ ”
When Matt Renie heard about his friend’s out-of-the-blue plan, he was stunned. So was Colleen Renie. They were even more stunned by what happened after Matt told Karras that he would take over the sales and distribution of the hats.
“Ted was all in,” says Matt, who works for a software startup company. “We created a business in about two weeks. The first night, we sold about $70,000 in hats. It was like a true explosion. Up to the end of the Bengals’ season, we had sold just under 10,000 hats.
“This has brought a sense of pride to the villagers. They’ve helped a lot with the project, packing orders, helping us organize our inventory. It’s so much fun to see them involved, to see how much they care, to see how proud they are that people are rallying around them and supporting them. There’s a feeling of, ‘Ted’s taking an interest in us. That’s so cool.’ ”
‘To live their best life’
In all, the effort with the “Cincy” hat raised about $380,000 for the Village, Colleen says.
It has also inspired the creations of an “Indy” hat and T-shirts that Karras has designed, timing their introductions with the Indianapolis 500 this May.
“We’re from Indianapolis,” Karras says. “The race is the biggest sporting event in the world. We want to tie this into our hometown.”
The proceeds from both hats and the t-shirts will be used to expand the housing capabilities of the Village, Colleen says. Right now, the facility is able to accommodate about 80 people in its location on the east side of Indianapolis. A new facility scheduled to open in nearby Carmel this summer—and another facility planned on the east side to open in 2024—will double the number of people who will benefit.
“My Catholic faith has always been my motivation to serve as much as possible to the less fortunate,” Colleen says. “We named it after St. Angela Merici because of her deep commitment to a sense of community and developing that community support for individuals. That’s the mission that has been driving us—how can we support individuals with disabilities to live their best life.”
She’s seen the difference the Village has made to her son, Jason, leading him to independent living, to a job in a restaurant, to connections with friends.
Karras also insists the Village helps him live his best life.
“My relationship with many of the villagers is like a shot of light for me,” he says. “There’s this one villager, Marty. One time when I came to the Village, I missed him because he was working. I ended up popping into Kroger to see him and to make sure he knew I was thinking about him.”
If you have ever needed a friend, or if you’ve been a friend to someone in need, you know the power of that bond.
(For information about how to purchase an “Indy” hat or T-shirt to support the Village of Merici, visit the website, theindyhat.com. For more information about the Village of Merici, visit the website, www.villageofmerici.org.) †
