KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Deidre Anderson-Barbee will be able to cross an item off her bucket list when she takes her seats at the Super Bowl this February in Las Vegas.
“Who doesn’t want to go to the Super Bowl?" Anderson-Barbee asked.
The Kansas City Chiefs named Anderson-Barbee the team’s 2023 Inspire Change Changemaker.
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The team surprised her with two free tickets to Super Bowl LVIII in a pregame ceremony during the Christmas Day game.
CBS aired the ceremony during New Year's Eve's national telecast of the Bengals vs. Chiefs game.
“I heard from people I haven’t heard from in years." she said. "The text messages, the phone calls.”
The Inspire Change award also comes with a $10,000 grant Anderson-Barbee can donate to a charity of her choice. She chose to give the money to Early Start. She led the early childhood education nonprofit for 11 years.
In 2024, Anderson-Barbee is putting all her attention in a new initiative she launched called Starting Early.
The group’s goal is to make childcare more affordable, to increase salaries for employees, and to reduce wait lists for parents.
Her mission is to unite parents, providers, politicians and others to invest more time, attention, and money on early childhood education.
“I believe when you get a bunch of mothers and fathers fired up, there’s an abundance of what can be done,” she said.
Anderson-Barbee sees the award from the Chiefs as validation for all her efforts.
“The work I do is very exhausting,” she admitted. “When you’re trying to advocate for a cause, it comes with opposition, it’s a lot of sacrifice. This gives me the fuel to keep doing more.”
She will bring her husband to the Super Bowl and plans to use her platform to promote Starting Early and its mission with others in Las Vegas.
Anderson-Barbee encourages any one who wants to get involved in the mission to email her at deidre.andersonbarbee@startingearlykc.org
