Photo credit: Bettina Hansen/ The Seattle Times
When Marshawn Lynch isn’t on the field, you can always find him giving back to his hometown of Oakland, California. Whether he’s sending kids back to school with free haircuts and school supplies, hosting youth football camps at his high school alma mater, or saving a classic Bay area soul food restaurant, the former Seattle Seahawks running back (now member of the Oakland Raiders), is always using his platform to pay it forward.
With the launch of his very own cell phone service on Sprint’s network called Beast Mobile, Lynch’s latest charitable effort includes providing 3,000 free smartphones with three months of free service to homeless people in the Oakland and Seattle areas. The pilot program, “Phones for the Homeless,” is in partnership with Lynch’s Fam1st Family Foundation, an organization dedicated to empowering children in the Bay area.
— Shawn Lynch (@MoneyLynch) July 17, 2018
The Beast Mobile website states, “With Seattle having the 3rd largest homeless population in the U.S. and Oakland (and the Bay Area) having the 4th largest, Beast Mobile and Fam1st Family Foundation are committed to providing a solution to help city officials communicate with this previously untrackable demographic.”
“We’re giving people the opportunity to get free cellphone service every month by engaging in targeted advertising from their device,” said mobile industry veteran Leigh Hunt, who came up with the idea. “If someone doesn’t care to engage in advertising that month, they can pay $24 — which still undercuts most pre-paid plans and is significantly lower than big carrier, post-paid plans. The idea is to reward subscribers for doing things they’re already doing on their phone — downloading apps, shopping online, watching videos, etc.”
Visit Beast Mobile to find out more.