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Chestnut Hill, MA - During today's game between Boston College and Wake Forest, representatives from the FedEx Orange Bowl will make a special presentation.  Like Coach Swinney of the Clemson Tigers and Coach Beamer of the VT Hokies, the FedEx Orange Bowl will make a donation to Uplifting Athletes to support Ewing's sarcoma research in honor of BC Linebacker Mark Herzlich.  The Boston College chapter of Uplifting Athletes was started by wide receiver Ryan Lindsey when he learned of his teammate's bout with this rare disease.  Lindsey, along with teammates Damik Scafe, Wes Davis, Billy Flutie, Thomas Claiborne, James McCluskey, Mark Spinney and Marcellus Bowman organized the chapter's innagural "Lift For Life" event, which raised over $30,000 this summer.  Their efforts have generated nearly $50,000 so far to fund research for this rare disease.

Click on the links below to read more about these amazing gestures of support:

Wall Street Journal
USA Today
ESPN
Greenville Online

Another campaign currently underway to support the BC Chapter is the "March for Mark."  It's being organized be a former high school teammate Jonathan Hamer at Conestoga High School. 

Last week, during the Penn State vs. Temple game, the Penn State chapter of Uplifting Athletes presented a check for $88,360 to the Kidney Cancer Association for rare disease research.  Throughout the fall, player run chapters at Ohio State, Maryland and Colgate University will make presentations to the CMT Association (a rare neurological disorder), Cystic Fibrosis Foundation and Ehlers-Danlos National Foundation (a rare soft tissue disorder) respectively for rare disease research.

About Uplifting Athletes:  Uplifting Athletes is a national nonprofit founded in 2003 by a group of college football players.  Our mission align college football with rare diseases and raise them as a national priority through outreach, research, education and advocacy.  A rare disease is one that affects fewer than 200,000 Americans and typically lacks financial incentive to make and market new treatments.  What makes Uplifting Athletes unique is that our university chapters are run by current football student-athletes, giving them the ability to actively engage their teammates while gaining practical management skills.  Each chapter adopts one of nearly 7,000 different rare diseases to make the cause relevant to their team.  Our chapter network currently includes Boston College, Maryland, Ohio State, Penn State and Colgate University.  The coordianted effort across college football is elevating the rare disease cause and benefitting nearly 30 million Americans. For more information, please visit www.upliftingathletes.org or contact Scott Shirley @ 717-525-8966.