Choosing Frank Ragnow as the Detroit Lions’ 2023 nominee for the NFL’s prestigious Walter Payton Man of the Year Award was a no-brainer for the team. The award recognizes excellence on and off the field and is given to a player who has had a significant positive effect on their community — and Ragnow has those qualities in spades.
“Frank Ragnow is the ultimate teammate who lays everything on the line to help the person next to him,” Lions coach Dan Campbell said last December at the time of the nomination. “He deserves every aspect of this award for the work he has done with his Rags Remembered Foundation and the young lives he has touched.”
Ragnow founded the Rags Remembered Foundation in 2022 in honor of his father, who had died six years prior. Inspired by his time fishing with his dad at their family cottage in Canada, Ragnow wanted to bring the healing power of the outdoors to kids whose parents had died. With a toe injury that sidelined him from playing most of the 2021 season, he was finally able to kick-start the charity that he’d first hoped to open in 2018 after he was drafted in the first round by the Lions.
This past summer, Hour Detroit spoke with some of the children and teens attending the foundation’s Camp Huddle Up at the YMCA’s Camp Ohiyesa. One of those kids was 13-year-old Roslyn McCullough, whose mom, Robyn Banks, died in January 2023. In the months after her mom’s death, according to her aunt Rachel Banks, McCullough became withdrawn and didn’t like to talk much. That all changed after her time at Camp Ohiyesa.
“It was really nice seeing her out in nature and around people she could relate to. Roslyn really started to open up that day,” Banks says. “I hadn’t seen her that cheerful in a while.”
At the camp, she spent time with kids in similar situations and took part in a variety of outdoor activities. Her favorite activity, though, was fishing, which she had never done before.
After mastering the sport, McCullough was invited to attend that year’s Fishin’ for Memories through the foundation, where she had the chance to reconnect with Ragnow and fish Lake St. Clair. Now, she enjoys going fishing on her own with the rod and stocked tackle box given to her at the event.
For children and teens like McCullough, Camp Huddle Up is about more than just the outdoors. In addition to their time spent with Ragnow, campers meet with grief counselors from Hospice of Michigan. They develop coping mechanisms and work on ways to deal with the trauma of losing a parent. Ragnow also hopes campers walk away from their experience as part of a community.
“They’ve developed a support system of people that understand what they’re going through and [that they] can lean on, other than just me. They can bond with them and understand that they’re not alone,” Ragnow says.
Just as the Lions’ success has increased on the field, so has the success of Ragnow’s foundation. This past summer’s program had 37 campers, more than double the attendance from 2023. The foundation was able to grow its program through the $55,000 donation Ragnow received as a Walter Payton nominee and through fundraisers like the Skeet Shoot Showdown, which held its second annual event in May. “The Detroit community is really rallying behind us,” Ragnow told us at the event. “I’m excited to be able to expand our community and who we can help out.”
It’s clear that Ragnow is respected and supported by his teammates; about a dozen of them, including Penei Sewell, Sam Laporta, and Jack Campbell, showed up at the event. When we asked LaPorta what it means to him to work with the foundation, he said, “It mostly has to do with Frank. Obviously he’s just such a great leader for our organization, and what he does in the community — it’s outstanding. We just try to do our best to support him and the community.”
For more information on Rags Remembered or how to get involved, visit Facebook.com. The 2024 Walter Payton nominees will be announced in December; check nfl.com/manoftheyear for updates.
This story originally appeared in the December 2024 issue of Hour Detroit magazine. To read more, pick up a copy of Hour Detroit at a local retail outlet. Our digital edition will be available on Dec. 9.
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