DESTIN, Fla. (WKRG) — Former and current professional athletes took the day Thursday to help student-athletes in Destin.

Previous MLB players, NFL players, and community leaders served lunch to fans and community members at The Edge Seafood and Skybar on the Destin Harbor. A few student-athletes at Destin High School also got the day out of school to serve at the luncheon.

Athletes for the day included:

  • Coach Tommy Bowden, former Head Coach of Clemson University and Tulane University
  • Pete Smith, former Atlanta Braves player
  • John Rocker, former Atlanta Braves player
  • Danny Collins, former Pittsburgh Pirates player
  • Bob Bratkowski, former assistant NFL and NCAA football coach
  • E.G. Green, former Indianapolis Colts and FSU player and FSU Hall of Fame Inductee
  • Deonte Sheffield, former FSU Football player
  • Miles Jones, Major Lacrosse League player
  • Mel Ponder, Board of Okaloosa County Commissioners
  • Charlie Nix, Under Sheriff
Former and current professional athletes took the day Thursday to help student-athletes in Destin.

“It was really just a reach out to people that we knew through our Destin High School network,” said Destin High School Athletic Director Phil Dorn. “Our athletic boosters started to reach out to people to see who they knew and we were fortunate that a lot of these celebrities are local. Miles Jones lives right here in Destin, Coach Bowden lives in Destin, so we wanted to bring people to this event that local people might want to meet.”

The Feb. 16 event is the first for Destin High School’s athletic program. Staff said they sold out the 11:30 a.m. and 1:00 pm seating and offered raffle prizes during the lunch. The event raised more than $10,000.

“I think the real key is we were able to get a lot of good celebrities to volunteer their time to come in to help,” said Dorn. “People that we would consider other people would want to meet and enjoy having a chance to have lunch with and get to know them.”

Dorn said the money raised will go towards athletic operations including buying equipment, uniforms, paying for travel, cost of getting teams to their locations.

“We don’t have any athletic facilities on campus so this helps us pay for facility rentals, which is our practice fields and our game fields and those locations,” said Dorn. “So all of this money goes right back to operations right back to our students, and it gets dispersed over 25 sports.”

DHS plans to do the event again in the future.