INDIANAPOLIS — Tarik Glenn's name is on the Ring of Honor at Lucas Oil Stadium. He's the left tackle who protected Peyton Manning's blind side for years and helped the Colts win the 2007 Super Bowl.
But Glenn wanted more. Not for himself, but for the youth in his community. He became an advocate for Indianapolis kids.
"What better way to maximize your platform than to serve your community that you're playing in?" Glenn said.
Glenn and his wife founded the nonprofit DREAM Alive in 2001.
"My wife and I both benefited from that as we were growing up," Glenn said. "When we got married, one of our aligning values were we were able to start something that had an impact on inner city youth."
Glenn's organization mentors kids in seventh through 12th grades in inner city Indianapolis, helping them discover career paths.
"Whether it's law, business, engineering, the medical field, politics — we basically take a ton of field trips," Glenn said. "The premise is to mentor the youth through community service. A lot of our youth come from underserved communities. Although they may not have a lot, we all have something to give."
Long before he became an NFL star, Glenn said mentors helped him.
"Mentorship had a huge impact on my life," Glenn said. "The way my life unfolded was God. Divine appointments — placing instrumental individuals into my life that either coached me, mentored me, and spoke into my life, really discipled me that I became the man that I was."
Even though he now lives in San Francisco and works with student-athletes at UC Berkeley, Glenn remains committed to the kids in Indy through DREAM Alive.
"What we tried to do in starting DREAM Alive was to create an organization for kids who fell through the cracks," Glenn said. "Growing up, I had people who impacted me, but I had friends who didn't have those same experiences. Being able to have programs and organizations that really target students who tend to get overlooked, and not have those intentional touches in life — that's part of the problem. So, DREAM Alive is really orchestrated to where we're reaching out to those students in particular."
Glenn said there's no better way to live a life than to make an impact on someone else's.
"For them to have opportunities because of things you've been able to do, whether it's encouraging them, uplift them, support them, open doors for them, there's no better way to live a life," Glenn said.
Glenn is a champion on and off the field, and DREAM Alive is helping middle and high schoolers from Indianapolis become the next generation of leaders.