Former Cheerleader Still Helping Others

As a Ravens Cheerleader or FOX reality star, Molly Shattuck is helping the less fortunate

It only takes a few minutes around famous Ravens Cheerleader Molly Shattuck to know that what she does best is help people in need. It only takes a few more to see how genuinely important it is to her.

Shattuck is a well-known civic leader in Baltimore. As the wife of Constellation Energy CEO and Chairman Mayo Shattuck III, she has spearheaded many charitable efforts centered on disadvantaged and inner-city youth. Many fans will recognize her from the two years she was on the Ravens sidelines as the oldest cheerleader in NFL history at age 38.

This week, many more people will see her giving spirit when she is featured on the new FOX reality show, Secret Millionaire. Shattuck’s episode will air tonight.

“I had been contacted a lot since the cheerleading extravaganza,” Shattuck said. She got a call from FOX late last year explaining the premise of the show, in which well-off citizens anonymously blend in with a struggling community. They live in impoverished conditions, interact with the people there and after a week, donate some of their own money to those people in an effort to change their lives.

“I wasn’t sure initially,” Shattuck conceded, saying she thought it would be more of a documentary movie than a reality show. She’s still not crazy about the title of the show. But in the end, she saw an opportunity to motivate others.

“It’s a great catalyst for people to get involved and volunteer,” she said. “If it opens [other’s] eyes, it’s worth doing.”

After coming in for a taped interview (which was in reality a casting tape), Shattuck left for Shenandoah, and old coal-mining town in eastern Pennsylvania that had fallen on hard times.

With very little money and no luxuries (not even a cell phone), she was immediately placed in a situation where she had to pay rent. She immediately got a job as a waitress nearby, which was not a far stretch from the job she had growing up.

Shattuck was lucky enough to have her mother with her. She also took steps to make sure she didn’t stand out the way she often would on the sidelines. She wore no make-up, low-end clothing and pigtails throughout the week. With cameras recording her everywhere she went under the pretense that a documentary was being made about starting over, Shattuck began to integrate herself.

“It became very apparent to me very quickly that there were many people [in Shenandoah] who cared about each other,” Shattuck observed. “There were good people everywhere, and good people in need everywhere.”

Shattuck got involved immediately, working with many people in the town. She could not get into details to keep the premise of the show a surprise for viewers, but she says that the wonderful people she met would be a part of her life forever.

“Molly has energy unlike any other,” said Tina Galdieri, the Ravens’ cheerleader director.

“When she puts her mind to a good cause, she spreads the word, spreads it fast and does not take ‘no’ for an answer.”

Shattuck’s giving spirit is infectious, as was evident in her days as a Ravens cheerleader. She participated in the Ravens annual Habitat for Humanity, but took it a step further after meeting the people who would be living there.

“I had the great privilege to meet the man and his daughter who were the recipients of the house,” Shattuck beamed. She described how they had lost their home in Hurricane Katrina, and how the man’s wife had been diagnosed with breast cancer. They had come to Baltimore so she could receive treatment at Johns Hopkins.

“I [was] so incredibly moved by what I was hearing, I went back to the cheerleaders,” she said.

“We’ve got to do something.”

Shattuck went on to rally members of the Ravens organization and the surrounding community to fully furnish the house, complete with clothing, furniture and other items. She even went so far as to bake cookies right before the family would arrive, so they would enter their new home to the fresh smell.

She also got her children involved with the process.

“When I was on the Ravens, my kids were involved in many of the charitable aspects I was involved in,“ Shattuck beamed with pride. “It was able to change their lives forever, being a part of the Ravens family. They still feel like they’re a part of that.”

As much pride as she took in helping, she took even more in seeing others getting involved as a result of her encouragement. Players got involved like never before, like Ed Reed, who donated four new mattresses to the family. Others donated small items or cookie sheets, and it meant the world to Shattuck, because it all added up. “It doesn’t matter how much you give, it’s that you give.”

Shattuck is proud to have had the experiences she’s had, both with Secret Millionaire and with the Ravens. When her featured episode of Secret Millionaire airs on Wednesday night, the show will highlight her background with the Ravens. She finds that appropriate, since the theme of helping others in the show is such a huge part of the Ravens’ identity.

“It’s a part of who the Ravens are, giving back to the community,” Shattuck explained. “It’s important to help others. It’s a part of who I am and what I do.”