The frightening collapse of the Buffalo Bills Safety, Damar Hamlin, has been put in the national spotlight and has caught the eye of a local institute.

The Youth Leadership Institute of Erie has announced their support of the Chasing M’s Foundation. The Chasing M’s is a non-profit charitable effort establish by Halmin to give back to children in his home community in western Pennsylvania. The student participants at Erie’s own Youth Leadership Institute were moved by the incident and have a goal to help provide 1,000 toys to Hamlin’s foundation.

The Youth Leadership of Erie plans to tie the toy drive with Global Youth Service day where students will participate in a health fair which will be focused on helping young people be better prepared to provide emergency services.

“This could have been your son. This could have been your brother, your uncle, your friend. This is a show of support and a show of love for one of our brothers that suffered a serious injury,” said Edison Nicholson, CEO of Youth Leadership Institute of Erie.

“Trying to get awareness out there. Trying to let people know that real stuff is going on and we need to something about it or else it will get worse,” said Celeste Cole, Board President of Youth Leadership Institute of Erie.

The toy drive begins Monday, January 9th. All toys can be dropped off at the Youth Leadership Institute of Erie’s regional headquarters located at 1306 E. Lake Rd. and the Booker T. Washington Center located at 1720 Holland St.