By Lisa Zimmerman | Engagement Insider
From the time he was a child, Cincinnati Bengals linebacker Vincent Rey has had a natural inclination to help others. At the age of 11, he began tutoring his peers in math. Rey, a native of Queens, New York, had been admitted to the prestigious Bay Academy in Brooklyn and when other parents in his neighborhood found out, they sought out Rey to help their children get their grades up so that they too might have the opportunity to be admitted.
“Some people from my church and my community wanted their kids to go (to Bay Academy) so they asked me to help,” Rey recalled. “They got in and I ended up being the tutor in my neighborhood.”
To this day, Rey tutors elementary students in math. On Tuesdays, the NFL’s off day, he tutors seventh and eighth graders in math at a local Cincinnati public school. In addition to teaching the subject matter, he especially tries to be an example and role model for boys to teach them the right ways of doing things in life.
“That’s my real passion, educating young men,” he said. “I was raised by my mother and father, but where I’m from, most guys didn’t have a connection with their fathers. I was one of the anomalies, who had a role model to constantly remind me to do the right thing. I feel young men need that and I want to do anything I can to help the next person. The reason why I want to help young men is because I feel like I’ve been helped.”
To further that cause, Rey has been involved with a variety of other programs, including one in the Cincinnati public school system called MORE - Men Organized Respectful and Educated. Where he would simply spend time with male students in the middle school and high schools and talk to them about his life and how their educations and behavior can lead them to any path they choose in life.
Rey is involved in a litany of other causes including United Way programs and the organization Envision Children in Cincinnati. Almost everything he does revolves around helping give children a leg up and the tools to achieve success.
But, when Rey sees any group of people that need help he jumps in. That’s what got him involved with the Aruna Project – an organization that helps young girls in India. Rey met a man named Ryan Berg who came to speak and give words of encouragement to Bengals players one night before a game. He shared stories with them about the commercial sex trade and exploitation going on in South Asia and the efforts of the Aruna Project to rescue as many of these girls and women as they could. Most of the women have been enslaved and have no way out. One of the main contributing factors is the poverty level in India; almost 80 percent of the population lives in poverty, meaning opportunities are few and far between.
The Aruna project offers opportunity and Rey knew that although the problem was halfway around the world, he wanted to help.
“I wanted to get to know [Ryan Berg] better,” Rey said. “He was telling me about the stuff he was doing and it touched my heart. But, I didn’t think I could do anything about it.”
It turned out, he could do something. Rey has taken part in fundraisers on behalf of the Aruna Project, the primary one being the Aruna 5K that is held in Cincinnati. The money is used to support the members of the organization who physically go into the brothels in the red light district in Mumbai and encourage the girls and women to leave and find a new way of life.
“There’s a place called The Oasis for the women,” Rey said. “They give them a job where they can make enough money to sustain themselves and learn they’re not trash; that they’re not born just to be used by men.”
For his many efforts, Rey has been nominated by the Bengals for the Walter Payton Man of the Year Award. For him, it’s just one more way to be a positive example and a role model.
For more information about the Aruna Project: https://vimeo.com/114767511