Giving Back on Thanksgiving

Becoming a parent for the first time can really change a person's perspective. For many, it can be the first time you really want to put someone else's needs before your own, not just out of necessity, but also out of love.

That's just what happened to Green Bay Packers cornerback Charles Woodson when he had his first child in January.

"It can change a lot," Woodson said during a visit to Ann Arbor earlier this month, according to an Associated Press article.

Unlike most parents, however, Woodson is in a position to extend that care to those beyond his family. Just in time for the holiday season, Woodson donated $2 million to the new University of Michigan Mott Children's Hospital and Women's Hospital. The gift was announced Thursday, just before the Green Bay Packers sacked the Detroit Lions 34-12 on Thanksgiving Day.

The Charles Woodson Clinical Research Fund will go toward pediatric research. The $754 million hospital is scheduled to open in 2012.

"He’s really studied and tried to understand what the issues are in doing research in pediatrics," Dr. Valerie Castle told the AP. "What most people don’t know is that less than 10 percent of the National Institute of Health budget goes toward research in pediatric disease."

Woodson hopes his gift will help attract the world’s best researchers in pediatric cancer, heart disease, kidney disorders and autism.

"I want to be part of that symbol of hope," Woodson told the AP. "So that they can say, ‘I know I can beat this thing and there’s people out there who will help me beat it.'"

Woodson helped Michigan win the national championship in 1997. He won the Heisman Trophy as a cornerback.

Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.