LAKE FOREST, Ill. – When Bears defensive end Adewale Ogunleye was growing up in New York City, the telephone in his family’s apartment would often ring at 3 o’clock in the morning.

Distant relatives Ogunleye had never met would call after arriving at JFK International Airport from Nigeria, seeking a ride and a place to stay. His parents, Gabriel and Lawrencia, always obliged.

Adewale Ogunleye has played four seasons with the Bears after arriving in a 2004 trade.

“We didn’t even know who it was,” Ogunleye said. “But we’d get up, go pick them up and put them in a room. I’d have to share my room with my brother. That’s the way our life was.”

Although Gabriel Ogunleye was a provincial king in Emure, Nigeria, he emigrated to the United States in 1972 to pursue an education and the American dream. Lawrencia followed a year later. Both earned graduate degrees and became social workers in New York City.

While Ogunleye now admires his parents’ generosity, he admits that he didn’t always feel that way.

“When I was growing up as a child, I almost used to resent the way my parents would give,” he said. “It almost felt like they were taking food out of our mouths and clothes off our backs to help people who I didn’t know and they barely knew.

“But looking back now, I definitely think that it’s because of my giving nature that I’ve been blessed, and it’s because they unselfishly gave of themselves and their time that God has continued to bless me. Sometimes I feel like I don’t deserve the blessings I get, but I know it has to do with what my parents did and how much they gave.

“Now I feel like it’s my obligation to give back, and not just give back but continue the example they started for me.”

Ogunleye no doubt will have that on his mind today when he departs on a trip to Nigeria. He’ll be joined by other NFL players with Nigerian roots, including Bears teammate Israel Idonije, Giants defensive end Osi Umenyiora and Texans defensive tackle Amobi Okoye. Bears defensive tackle Tommie Harris and Texans running back Ahman Green are also expected to participate. Some of the players are staying for seven days; others will remain there for as long as two weeks.

The pro athletes are pooling their own money to give scholarships to 20 male and female students at Nigeria’s major universities in concert with the Changing Africans Through Education (CATE) foundation. Okoye is teaming up with Nike to donate clothes and equipment to a youth soccer team.

Ogunleye, a provincial prince, will deliver HIV test kits to university medical programs while also digging fresh-water wells in his parents’ hometown. Clean water may be taken for granted in the United States, but that’s certainly not the case in Africa.

“When guys go get a water bottle on our practice field, they don’t finish the bottle and you see about 20 half-empty bottles on the ground,” Ogunleye said. “You never think about it, but there are so many people in the world that would love to have the rest of that water in the bottle.

“They’re drinking out of the same rivers and bathing in the rivers and swimming in the rivers with livestock, and that’s not healthy. People need to drink clean water that’s disease free.”

Idonije applauds his teammate’s effort, especially after making a recent trip to Nigeria.

“I went to a village where they had huge basins of water,” said Idonije, who was born in Nigeria before his family emigrated to Canada. “Every morning the kids would go back and forth from the river to fill it up, and that’s what they would drink out of every day. To have a well with fresh water is important. For him to do that for those people is really good.”

Like Ogunleye, Idonije feels a strong connection to his homeland.

“The main thing is just really going down there and making an impact with the children,” Idonije said. “It’s important to share with your community and your culture. I went back in ’05 and that was my focus. We were able to provide some funding so kids could apply to go to school, and give guidance and help to some of the younger Nigerian kids who need it.”