{"id":110377,"date":"2025-06-07T04:59:19","date_gmt":"2025-06-07T04:59:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/110377\/"},"modified":"2025-06-07T04:59:19","modified_gmt":"2025-06-07T04:59:19","slug":"uchealths-fundraiser-with-denver-broncos-raises-175k-for-freedom-service-dogs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/110377\/","title":{"rendered":"UCHealth&#8217;s fundraiser with Denver Broncos raises $175K for Freedom Service Dogs"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>AURORA, Colo. \u2014 Denver Broncos players traded footballs for a baseball bat recently to support UCHealth&#8217;s home run derby, which raised $175,000 for <a class=\"Link\" href=\"https:\/\/freedomservicedogs.org\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Freedom Service Dogs<\/a>. <\/p>\n<p>Poor weather forced the derby from Coors Field to an indoor facility, but the players were still able to hit some baseballs and connect with families who have had their lives changed by Freedom Service Dogs. UCHealth selects a different nonprofit to benefit from its Healthy Swings home run derby every year, and this year, it was the service dog organization. Freedom Service Dogs breeds, raises and trains service dogs for people who have physical or intellectual disabilities, as well as veterans and first responders who have PTSD.<\/p>\n<p>Chris Nelson, president and CEO of Freedom Service Dogs, said the dogs in the program make &#8220;a life-changing difference&#8221; for their owners. <\/p>\n<p>            <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/1749272359_649_\" alt=\"Denver Broncos at UCHealth's homerun derby for Freedom Service Dogs\"  width=\"1185\" height=\"662\"\/><\/p>\n<p>UCHealth<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;In some cases, they make a life-saving difference, especially for our nation\u2019s veterans with visible and invisible disabilities, such as PTSD,&#8221; Nelson said. &#8220;We\u2019re so grateful to\u00a0UCHealth\u00a0for selecting Freedom Service Dogs as the beneficiary of Healthy Swings. Every donation \u2014 no matter how big or small \u2014 helps us continue to provide these highly skilled service dogs free of charge.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Popular Broncos players, including Courtland Sutton, Pat Surtain II and Alex Singleton, signed memorabilia, took photos with attendees and met the good dogs who help people every day. <\/p>\n<p>            <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/1749272359_718_\" alt=\"Denver Broncos at UCHealth's homerun derby for Freedom Service Dogs\"  width=\"1280\" height=\"853\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Jamie Schwaberow\/Clarkson Creati\/Jamie Schwaberow\/Clarkson Creati<\/p>\n<p>        Jonathon Cooper meets families at UCHealth&#8217;s Healthy Swings home run derby event, which benefited Freedom Service Dogs. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s about giving back to what\u2019s important, it\u2019s not really about us hitting the ball. It\u2019s about bringing people together for really important causes,\u201d Singleton said. <\/p>\n<p>Watch the Denver Broncos players swing the bat for a good cause and learn more about the impact in our report below. <\/p>\n<p>Healthy Swings derby raises $175K for Freedom Service Dogs<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"AURORA, Colo. \u2014 Denver Broncos players traded footballs for a baseball bat recently to support UCHealth&#8217;s home run&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":110378,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2062],"tags":[232,27872,231,258,27873,27874,2426,7,22509,27867,27868,27869,27866,6,27870,27871],"class_list":{"0":"post-110377","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-denver-broncos","8":"tag-broncos","9":"tag-broncos-dog-rescue","10":"tag-denver","11":"tag-denver-broncos","12":"tag-denver-broncos-service-dog","13":"tag-denver-broncos-service-dog-donation","14":"tag-denverbroncos","15":"tag-football","16":"tag-freedom-service-dogs","17":"tag-freedom-service-dogs-broncos","18":"tag-freedom-service-dogs-denver","19":"tag-freedom-service-dogs-home-run-derby","20":"tag-freedom-service-dogs-uchealth","21":"tag-nfl","22":"tag-uchealth-home-run-derby","23":"tag-uchealth-home-run-derby-broncos"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/114640320750185345","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110377","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=110377"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110377\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/110378"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=110377"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=110377"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=110377"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}