Devontae Booker all smiles at Smile Generation’s Orange & Blue Bowling Bash

While many of the Denver Broncos spent their final Saturday of their offseason break relaxing, running back Devontae Booker spent his Saturday hosting the fourth annual Smile Generation Orange and Blue Bowling Bash at the Arapahoe Bowling Center.

The event, put on Booker, Strikes for Kids and Mile High Sports Radio’s The Final Word, provided a minimum of 100 backpacks filled with school supplies to students from various organizations across the community to help ensure that they are prepared for the upcoming school year.

Along with backpacks, attendees were given swag bags, 90 minutes of bowling, a t-shirt, pizza, soda and a photo with Booker. Spectators and participants were also allowed to participate in a silent auction containing various items signed by numerous Denver athletes with all proceeds benefiting the Strikes for Kids Back 2 School Bonanza.

For Booker, helping out in the community is something that he doesn’t take for granted.

“It means a lot,” Booker said of the event. “Me coming here today, it’s been great. Seeing all the kids out here, all my fans. Just putting smiles on kid’s faces, that’s what’s important.”

Despite entering just his second year in with the Broncos, Booker is no stranger to helping out in the community. During his time at the University of Utah, Booker and the rest of the Utes would help put on camps for children during the summer time.

“We were doing some camps for kids there,” Booker said. “It was something that we could interact with the kids, get there and play with them and stuff like that when we were out of practice.”

Giving back in any amount was something Booker knew he wanted to do as he grew up in Sacramento, California. When he’d see older people make it out, they seldom came back to help the rest along.

“When I was a kid, those guys that made it out from my neighborhood, I really never saw them come back like that,” Booker said. “It was always like a once in a blue moon thing.”

From then on, Booker knew he wanted to help however he could.

“With me, I always told myself that when I made it I wanted to give back to the community and see the kids smile and give them what I never had out of the role models that I had looked up to,” Booker said. “Always giving back was always a big thing to me.”

While Booker may have hosted event at a bowling alley, he knows he’s not the best bowler in the Broncos’ running back room. That title belongs to C.J. Anderson.

“I bowl a little bit, but I’m nowhere near as good as him,” Booker laughed. “I see him on ESPN and stuff bowling too, and I’m like ‘what is he doing?'”

Booker can now join the rest of the Broncos in relaxing for the last few days of their break as training camp begins on Thursday.