Philip Rivers Launches Rivers of Hope Foundation (SanDiego.com)

Apr 27, 2010

“It takes a very willing and loving adoptive parent to unconditionally love a child and have them become their son or daughter forever,” says San Diego Chargers quarterback Philip Rivers.

Entering his seventh season with the Chargers, Rivers and his wife Tiffany have been looking for a way to give back. “We wanted to find something that we have a great deal of passion for and not just to do a foundation to do one,” says Rivers.

Last week, Rivers and his wife launched the Rivers of Hope Foundation at a special event held at SeaWorld. The couple is hopeful the new foundation will have a tremendous impact on the lives of San Diego County foster children.

“Obviously the long-term goal is to find them a home forever,” says Rivers. Reaching that goal takes time, patience, financial resources and a personal connection. Rivers expressed that he loves spending time with the children who will benefit from the foundation, even if it is just to throw a football around for a few minutes. “[With] one-on-one interaction you get to actually see that they are real people and real kids.”

With nearly six thousand children in San Diego in need of a permanent home, Rivers is aware that not all of them will find adoptive parents. With this in mind, the Rivers of Hope foundation will be providing a three-pronged approach to help foster children. This approach will assist in the active search of finding quality adoptive parents while meeting some of the basic needs that foster kids have in the interim.

“They are looking for their forever family, to love them and to care for them,” says Rivers. The cornerstone of the adoption effort will be San Diego’s Adoption Heart Gallery.

The gallery will consist of foster kids taking part in professional photography sessions. Those pictures will then be displayed throughout San Diego at various public events and on the internet through the Rivers of Hope Foundation. Rivers promises that his foundation will fully fund the Adoption Heart Gallery over the next four years.

“The one thing about this is awareness,” says Rivers. “Hopefully the many people who hear about this will tell the next person and then they will tell the next person and you may run into a future adoptive parent that way.”

The Rivers of Hope Foundation will also be creating and funding the Rivers of Hope Birthday Fund and the Something Special Fund.

“We don’t want any child’s birthday to be forgotten,” says Rivers. This is something that can often happen to foster children as they are moved around within the system. The Birthday Fund will assure that every child in foster care will receive a birthday gift on their special day.

The Something Special Fund will supply money for a foster child to purchase items to pursue their interests while enabling them to participate in more extra curricular activities. Based on both need desires this items could be anything ranging from a pair of cleats to play a sport or a musical instrument to participate in band.

Whether it is by helping facilitate an adoption, simply putting a smile on a foster child’s face by spending time with them, providing a birthday gift or meeting a need, Rivers insists that he and Tiffany will be involved for many years to come. “This is something that I see being involved in long after football and hopefully I will be playing football in San Diego for a real long time.”