HARRISBURG (WSIL) -- The Chicago Bears named Harrisburg football player Blake Eversmann their seventh Community High School All-Star award winner.
The Bears are recognizing nine high school football players making a positive impact in their community and school.
"I was completely taken back," Eversmann said. "I didn't imagine that a kid who cleans crosses in his spare time would ultimately go up and win an award in Chicago. I honestly thought there was a kid who had done something similar to my idea but on a much bigger scale."
Blake, received a hand-painted football along with a $500 check to go to the charity of his choice. Let's learn more about the young man who loves to give back.
Meet Blake Eversman, a senior offensive lineman for the Harrisburg Bulldogs football team. An outspoken young man with a heart full of kindness.
To tell this story and to tell it well, we need to begin a journey that starts from childhood. A lesson in life shared from a grandfather to a grandson.
"If I was out with him and I'd see a man or woman wearing a I served in this war hat, he'd poke me in the side and say go thank them for their service and that's what I grew up with. That's what I learned to do to give them the respect they deserve."
Now let's fast forward to Blake's freshman year in high school. Blake received a new class assignment, come up with a community project. The 4.0 student takes his academics serious but this project had him stumped. A conversation with his grandfather, and a fuse was lit.
"He talked about even when he was a kid and the crosses were breaking and deteriorating and made in 1931 when they were first put up and first grounded into the ground, to give respect to those men and women. He said even before he was born, his father was born, they were already starting to deteriorating, get dirty and break and he launched this idea towards me and I said I really don't have a better idea for this project so let's do it."
This project was not just a one time thing. It evolved into something so much more. Blakes grandfather, a Vietnam vet, served in the United States Army, and following Blakes school assignment created the Veterans Memorial Preservation Fund.
"It really hit me in the heart to know that I was doing something, just cleaning crosses for fallen soldiers. It really made me think about if I feel this good about just doing it once and they looked this beautiful from cleaning them once what would happen if I waited a few months and came back again and see what they look like afterwards. What if I waited a year and came back again and see what they look like afterwards. What if I waited a year and came back to see and came back after I cleaned them that third, fourth or fifth time."
"To see what the cemetery was before and knowing it was getting run down and for him to be one of the leaders to spearhead and not only his he cleaning the crosses but he's helping with fundraisers and doing things to improve that area, it's very cool to have that kind of kid on the team," Harrisburg Head Football Coach Gabe Angelly said."
Blake is donating his $500 check from the Bears to the fund his grandfather created. The hope is to provide scholarships in the future or help struggling families who lost a loved one who is a veteran.
"I just ended up recently losing my grandfather about a few months ago to cancer from agent orange from when he served in Vietnam. And I was terrified of doing it this year. I didn't think I'd be able to go and stand out there and do everything myself but the community really stepped up."
Blake fears when he goes off to college the crosses will get dirty again or start breaking and rusting. Mr. Nyberg, a local middle school teacher came up with a plan.
"Why don't I record you telling the history of these crosses and and say what you do to clean them and how you should act around them and every year when you're not here to clean them. I'll take a group of students and show them the video and we'll get right to cleaning."
Blake is going to attend the University of Alabama and major in psychology, minor in political science. The Harrisburg native says one day he wants to work in a VA hospital.
"Knowing my community is going to keep on doing this even after I'm gone is astonishing, it's beyond beautiful knowing the community is going to pick up where I left off and keep pushing forward. It honestly can bring a tear to my eye."
