When the Seattle Seahawks played their first game, Allen Perkins was there with his daughter in the Kingdome. That was 1976.
A season ticket holder from the start, Perkins never missed a home game. He always hoped to see the Hawks win a Super Bowl. He died in 2002, a dozen years before his team won the Lombardi Trophy.
“The culture of the 12s started with our seniors,” said Suzanne Perkins Newman, an Edmonds woman who fondly remembers those long-ago games with her dad. “We owe our fandom to our seniors. They didn’t care if they won or lost. They did the wave in the Kingdome.”
Newman, 62, is the founder of 12 Days of Goodness, which brings former Seahawks players together with elders at senior centers and retirement communities around the region. This is the sixth year for visits featuring Seattle football legends.
This year’s 12 Days of Goodness kickoff event, 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Wednesday at Mukilteo’s Rosehill Community Center, will include former players Antonio Edwards, Fred Anderson and Edwin Bailey, plus two superfans.
“Mama Blue” — retired 87-year-old hairstylist Patti Hammond — is scheduled to be there in her wacky blue-and-green wig, huge decorated eyeglasses and team-color boas, along with the fan known as the “Seahawks Rooster.” The $10 event will include an Ivar’s lunch.
Following Wednesday’s kickoff, eight more events are scheduled around the area, wrapping up with Steve Raible’s Blue Friday Celebration at 11:30 a.m. Dec. 21 at the Ballard Senior Center in Seattle.
“The whole purpose is to touch the hearts of seniors,” said Newman, who also hosts an “Answers for Elders” radio show.
Newman was her mother’s caregiver for six years before her mom died in 2011.
“I think the legends get as much out of it as the seniors do,” Newman said.
“It’s so enjoyable to go to the retirement homes and see people,” said “Mama Blue” Hammond, of Shoreline, who still drives her blue 1977 Lincoln Continental to home games. “They’re sweet, I just love it. I think I’m older than a lot of them.”
She’s been a cheerleader since her school days at Roosevelt High in Portland, Oregon, where her future husband was a football player. In 1976, she bought Hawks season tickets for her husband, Richard “Tricky” Hammond. He died in 2007.
In 1999, along with fans from other NFL teams, she was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio. Three years earlier, dressed as Mama Blue, she spoke up in Olympia when Ken Behring, a former owner of the team, wanted to move the Hawks to California.
Antonio Edwards, a Seahawk from 1993 to 1997, has visited seniors with the 12 Days of Goodness program for several years. “I think it makes their day. You see the twinkle in their eyes,” said the former defensive end, who lives in the Mukilteo area.
Now an assistant conductor with Amtrak, Edwards, 48, said the visits are a boost for former players. “Someone is happy to see you,” he said. “I enjoy that feeling of people being a fan of your work. And for me, I’m grateful that you remember me.”
Fred Anderson, 64, also plans to greet seniors at the Rosehill Community Center Wednesday. A defensive lineman with the Hawks from 1980 to 1982 and a former Pittsburgh Steeler, Anderson said he has a family member in a care facility.
“Hey, we’ve all got loved ones,” said Anderson, who lives in Kirkland. “It brings the world to them when people come to see them.”
Anderson said the program aims for more interaction with seniors, not just during the holidays. “That’s what we’re working toward,” he said. “We shouldn’t just wait until a special time of year to put our hearts where we should.”
For another former Seahawk, Joe Tafoya, the 12 Days of Goodness feels personal. His mother is in a care facility in California and has dementia. “That got me involved,” said Tafoya, 40, a defensive end during the Hawks’ playoff runs in 2005 and 2006. He also played for the Chicago Bears and the Arizona Cardinals.
He hopes Newman’s effort becomes a movement that coaxes others to visit their own elders and senior neighbors.
“Anybody can go visit,” he said.
Tafoya, who lives in Redmond with his wife and two children, said his visits are fun and memorable. Not all seniors love the Hawks — “you see Green Bay Packers fans,” he said.
“You walk away with some really fun stories,” Tafoya said. “I met a war veteran. I met Peyton Manning’s great aunt. I just love it. I wasn’t expecting to have so much fun that I didn’t want to leave.
“It just makes me sad to think some of them might be sitting alone, especially for the holidays,” Tafoya said.
“Suzanne, she is doing a wonderful thing,” said the woman Hawks fans know as Mama Blue. “Gosh darn, it’s give-back time. What’s Christmas about? Making everybody a little happier.”
Julie Muhlstein: 425-339-3460; jmuhlstein@heraldnet.com.
Kickoff event Wednesday
The 12 Days of Goodness kickoff event, which will bring former Seahawks and local seniors together, is scheduled for 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Wednesday at the Rosehill Community Center, 304 Lincoln Ave., Mukilteo. It includes lunch from Ivar’s, and appearances by superfans “Mama Blue” and the “Seahawks Rooster,” and former Seahawks Antonio Edwards, Fred Anderson and Edwin Bailey. Lunch tickets $10.
To reserve a spot, call 425-493-8555, and press 3.
Learn more about 12 Days of Goodness at: 12daysofgoodness.com
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