02/08/2026
As a Realtor, Nurse Midwife, and avid football fan that was raised by a single parent.....I LOVE THIS! #252 🙏🏾🙌🏾❤️
On January 7, 1993, Baton Rouge Police Corporal Betty Smothers was working an off-duty security job, escorting a grocery store manager to make a night bank deposit. Gunmen ambushed the car and shot her to death. She was pronounced dead at 12:45 a.m.
Her oldest son, Warrick Dunn, had turned 18 two days earlier. He was suddenly the man of a family of six, with five younger siblings looking to him.
Dunn used his mother's life insurance payout to buy the family's first home. Before that, they had been renting and moving around Baton Rouge, and owning a house had been Betty's dream she never lived to see.
He kept going. Dunn starred at Florida State, then was drafted in the first round by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 1997. He would play 12 NFL seasons and retire ranked 14th in league history in all-purpose yards.
But his rookie year changed more than his bank account. Head coach Tony Dungy challenged him to give back to the community.
So Dunn founded Homes for the Holidays, a program that helps economically disadvantaged single parents become first-time homeowners. And he doesn't just hand over keys. Each home comes fully furnished, down to the appliances and a stocked pantry, along with down payment assistance.
The program started with 3 families in its first year. It has since spread across 16 states, and in 2005 the NFL gave Dunn the Walter Payton Man of the Year Award for it.
His charity's count of single parents turned homeowners now stands at 252.
