Here's how the Stoneman Douglas community will help the Dolphins during the NFL Draft
When the Miami Dolphins are on the clock during the final day of the NFL Draft, the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High community will have a noticeable presence at team's headquarters in Davie.
The Dolphins will host 18 seniors from Stoneman Douglas as well as the family of assistant football coach Aaron Feis to announce the Dolphins' draft picks on April 28. The group will read the picks from the team’s training facility. As of Wednesday, the Dolphins have five draft picks on Day 3, which includes Rounds 4-7.
This is the latest of many ways the Dolphins have reached out to the Parkland community following the shooting.
The Dolphins teamed up with the Stoneman Douglas football team in March to host a free football clinic at Parkland’s Pine Trails Park — located less than two miles from the Douglas campus.
The team had also previously lent a hand to the Douglas community in the wake of the shooting. On Feb. 16 — two days after the shooting — the organization donated $100,000 to the GoFundMe page set up to help the victims and their families. That donation fund now has more than $7 million. The coaching staff also donated $17,500 to Feis’ family.
And when the Dolphins began their voluntary offseason conditioning program this week, Dolphins players have worn Stoneman Douglas t-shirts.
Feis was one of the 17 people killed during the mass shooting at the school on Feb. 14 after he shielded students from the shooter's gunfire. The burly security guard who graduated from Stoneman Douglas in 1999 was lauded around the school for his selflessness and desire to help others. Four of Feis’ pallbearers at his funeral were football players wearing their jerseys.
“We throw around the words hero and heroic pretty easily,” pastor David Hughes said at Feis' funeral. “We’re not just celebrating a husband, father, brother, coach and friend. We’re celebrating a hero.”
This story was originally published April 18, 2018 at 5:05 PM with the headline "Here's how the Stoneman Douglas community will help the Dolphins during the NFL Draft."