“I was trying to fight back tears and I just couldn’t”, said Valencia Archie.

After closing on her house last week Archie and her four sons were surprised by friends, family and Atlanta Falcons legend Warrick Dunn in her front yard.

“I thought it was going to be my realtor here my lender and some family members I didn’t expect this to happen,” said Archie. “Especially when Warrick Dunn walked up to the door and I was like I know exactly what’s going on”.

Dunn’s charity ‘Home for the Holidays’ teamed up with the city of Augusta to fully furnish the Archie resident.

“A lot of times they have to save up money to go and purchase furniture or they have a U-Haul that’s waiting to come in and now they can just go and give that stuff away,”said Dunn.

Since 1997 Dunn has helped hundreds of families with his inspiration being his late mother, who never owned her own home.

” First thing usually think of is that it could’ve been my mom, wish that it could’ve been her experiences,” said Dunn.

And his reach has touched hundreds of families, some have even followed in his footsteps.



“If you know his story then you know Deshaun Watson the first NFL pick for the Houston Texans knowing that he was apart of this program,” said Hawthorne Welcher, who’s with the Augusta city housing and development, “Knowing that Miss Archie has four kids as well you never know you might have the next DeShaun Watson right here in Augusta, Georgia.”

“It never gets old helping people and I’ve seen a lot of them seen been apart of a lot of them and it’s still a blessing it’s still life changing and I’m still thankful because that feeling never gets old,” said Dunn.