Ron Rivera announces he will match $100k worth of donations to St. Jude to honor his late mother

Washington Commanders Head Coach Ron Rivera’s mother Dolores passed away this week. He had gone to visit her in California before she died on Monday. Today he announced that he will match $100,000 worth of donations made to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. Rivera said his family has dealt with cancer, but his mother said children’s cancer is the worst. To honor her memory, and help children and their families, Rivera made this commitment today.

St. Jude Mission Statement:

The mission of St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital is to advance cures, and means of prevention, for pediatric catastrophic diseases through research and treatment. Consistent with the vision of our founder Danny Thomas, no child is denied treatment based on race, religion or a family’s ability to pay.

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Ron Rivera spoke about the passing of his mother on Wednesday:

How his mom shaped who he is today:

“There was a toughness about my mom, the way she grew up growing up in the Salinas Valley where a lot of the families were farm working families that worked on the farms. My grandfather worked on the farms, my grandmother did. That was something my parents didn’t want for my brothers and I. Education became a real foundation of who we are. And so that was always stressed.

Sports was the next thing. My mother loved football. My dad came from Puerto Rico and it was baseball, but football comes from my mom’s side of the family. I had a couple of uncles that were tremendous football players. My godfather, my uncle Larry was All-Everything. And one of the biggest compliments I got was having an old timer come up to me and say, ‘Boy, you played just like your uncle.’ That meant a lot.

One of my other inspirations for football was my uncle Bob, my mom’s youngest brother. He actually was here last week. Got to see a couple of games and having that part of the family here that was so instrumental in my development of football, that was important. My mom was very passionate about family. When you move from one military base to another, you had instant friends in terms of your brothers and it was always all about family, keeping the family together. And so when we moved, we moved together and she took care of the household.

When my dad went to Vietnam twice, in both those instances, my mom was our coach. She pitched batting practice. She did tackling drills. I mean, that’s what she did. And so, if there was an inspiration in my life more so than admiring who my father was, it was taking from my mom. I think that’s the hard part.”

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