He may be the most physically imposing Santa Claus ever.
When one meets Jamal Campbell, the first thing you notice is his size. The Toronto Argonauts starting right offensive tackle is 6’6”, 305, but the size of his heart somehow seems to be even bigger than his enormous frame.
Campbell and his girlfriend Kiana have organized a campaign to help feed some of the city’s homeless. People4People will distribute some 100 meals and survival kits in downtown Toronto in the days leading up to Christmas.
50 meal+ winter kits thus far!! 🙏🏾🙏🏾 . Thank you everyone for sharing/ donating! You're making somebody's holiday a special one this year.
Let's keep going! Link in bio. Half way to our goal of supporting 100 homeless people in Toronto pic.twitter.com/MttEo1qjwB
— Jamal Campbell (@HeisTooTall) December 8, 2020
“During the lockdown we drive downtown a lot, just to drive, just to see people,” Campbell told Argonauts.ca in a phone interview. “Something that we noticed this year is that there’s a lot more homeless people. We spent time talking to them, trying to find out how they got to where they are, and what resources they have access to.”
Those conversations planted a seed, and the couple decided it wanted to do something to make an impact. Initially the plan was to donate money themselves, then realized they could do even more through online crowdfunding.
The end result? Their lofty goal of raising $2,000 in a short period of time ended up raising just under $2,500, much of which was donated by Argo fans.
To those that know Campbell, the charitable initiative isn’t even a slight surprise, that’s just the way he’s wired. A tireless worker in the community, he was recognized in 2017 with a Toronto Urban Hero Award for his inspirational work and leadership.
He gets his sense of community and giving from his mother, Christine Campbell.
“I give all credit to my mom,” said the product of York University and C.W. Jefferys Collegiate Institute. “She’s been in social service since I was a kid and is still involved. As early as I can remember she’s had us volunteering. On her own birthday the other day she was working on her own initiative, handing out gifts.”
Like on a play where the tackle pulls, the big man had gathered up a full head of steam and was unstoppable, going at full speed when praising his main influence.
“We’re from the Jane and Finch area,” he continued. “Every year she gathers donations and tradable gifts and gives them to families and single moms who are struggling. There have been times where we had, and times where we didn’t have. At times we had to depend on the food bank, at times we had to depend on welfare. Throughout that whole time my mom has always made it an initiative to always give back.”
Not only did the apple not land far from the tree in this case, it took an Argo Bounce and nestled up against the tree trunk.
Just like mom, Campbell wants to not only continue with his contributions in the community. He wants to expand what they’re doing, and that means happily accepting both public and corporate contributions.
“We want to impact as many people as we can,” said No. 67. “We want to grow this thing as big as we can, so we’re open to anything. We don’t want to make this about Kiana and Jamal, we want to build something that’s going to last. It’s the coming together of everyone to say we have problems in our community, and the only way we’re going to help fix these problems is to do this together. We’re going to figure it out.”
The fundraising for this Christmastime campaign is finished, but Campbell wants to do something on a quarterly basis. The best way to keep tabs on what the future holds is to follow him on Twitter at @HeIsTooTall or @people4peopleto.