George Fant walked by the first base dugout Saturday at Bowling Green Ballpark and cracked a joke.

“I just didn’t want to be the first one to strike out,” he said after he successfully accomplished that goal.

Instead, the NFL star’s weekend of giving back to his hometown was a home run.

The former Warren Central and Western Kentucky standout held the second George Fant Dream Big Camp with multiple events over the weekend, capped off with a celebrity softball game Saturday night.

“It all came together pretty well,” Fant said. “My wife, my team kind of put this thing together a couple of months back earlier this year and kind of started a vision of this thing and I think it played out really well. We had a lot of people come out tonight and throughout the camp we had at least 400, 500 kids. I think our vision served its purpose, which is to give back to the community and kind of making the kids the value of our community.”

The Dream Big Camp started off with a football camp Friday for third through 12th graders in two sessions and also featured a basketball camp with the same age groups in two sessions. Fant and his team held a financial wellness seminar, and the entire weekend was capped off with Saturday’s celebrity softball game. While the softball game was new, it was the second year Fant has given back with his Dream Big Camp, but last year’s was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Fant, a standout on the basketball court at WKU before switching to football for a season and pursuing a professional career that’s led to him now being an offensive lineman with the New York Jets, brought plenty of big names to Bowling Green for the camp’s concluding event.

He captained one team, which featured the likes of other NFL players Taywan Taylor, Brandin Echols, Jamison Crowder and Mike White. Fant’s team – the Green team – came out victorious in the six-inning game over the White team 5-4 after holding off a late rally.

“A lot of these guys are from bigger cities and places like that, but I told them where they were coming and they were like, ‘I don’t know where that is,’ but they didn’t budge,” Fant said. “They just came down and they showed out for me and I know for sure they had a really good time and all the people that showed up had a really good time as well.”

The White team was captained by Hilltoppers hoops legend Courtney Lee and had a variety of players, like former WKU basketball standout Justin Johnson and Jets first-round 2020 NFL Draft pick Mekhi Becton.

“This is big for the community, man. George – this is where he grew up and he’s giving back to his community and he’s bringing other people to get involved with it,” said Lee, who added that Fant could count him in if he does the celebrity softball game every year. “I’m appreciative that he reached out to me because I think it was a good reason not only for me to come back to Bowling Green and see a lot of familiar faces, but to be a part of a good cause.”

The game also featured plenty of local flare with players like Ta’Corian Darden – a football standout at Russellville who became a starter at WKU – and Jared Savage – a Warren Central standout who eventually ended up playing basketball for the Hilltoppers after a stint at Austin Peay.

“It’s funny, man, because a lot of these guys who are local are guys who came up after me,” Fant said. “It’s special to see them come back and have the same traits that I did and they’re all trying to come in the same spot that I am right now in their respective sports and positions. It’s just a blessing to see them come back and give back to our community any way they can.”

For Fant, the weekend of giving back to his hometown is something that he hopes can continue in the future.

“It means a lot. It really does,” Fant said. “This community that I grew up in – the community loves me and I love it. I’ll continue to do my part to give back to our community as long as I can. As long as I’m here I’ll be showing love to our community and I hope to get the same. I love these people, I love this town, I love this city and hopefully we can do this again next year.”{&end}