The Buckeyes will challenge Penn State, Virginia, West Virginia, Texas and Georgia in a video game competition set up by Uplifting Athletes Sunday, Feb. 28, in efforts to raise money for rare diseases.
Uplifting Athletes is a national nonprofit organization aligning college football with rare diseases and raising them as a national priority through outreach, research education, and advocacy.
Scott Shirley is the founder of Uplifting Athletes. He was a student-athlete at PSU. While there, his dad was diagnosed with kidney cancer. His teammates rallied around him and started to raise money and awareness for kidney cancer.
Because of the support of his teammates, Shirley founded Uplifting Athletes. Pennsylvania State University was the first chapter of the organization. Uplifting Athletes has gained four more schools since its humble beginnings. There are five university chapters in total: Penn State, OSU, Boston College, Colgate and Maryland.
Each chapter has the opportunity to choose a rare disease. Chapters often select a cause that is personal to the team. OSU’s chapter has selected to raise money and awareness for Charcot-Marie-Tooth.
CMT is one of the most common inherited neurological disorders, affecting approximately one in 2,500 people in the United States. OSU quarterback Tyrelle Pryor’s father has the disease.
CMT is a neurological disorder that causes damage to the peripheral nerves. The damaged nerves carry signals from the brain and spinal cord to muscles and relay sensations. This causes pain to the spinal cord from the rest of the body.
Some symptoms of CMT are muscle weakness and wasting, stiffened joints because of abnormal tightening of muscles and associated tissues and some loss of sensation in the feet, the lower legs, the hands and the forearms. CMT can also cause curvature of the spine, also known as scoliosis.
The unique part of this organization is that OSU’s chapter network is run by current football student-athletes. These athletes are provided with an opportunity to gain practical job skills while learning how to leverage their assets and abilities to make a positive and lasting impact. Students can make donations to Uplifting Athletes by coming to the event. OSU’s defensive back Donnie Evege is the chairman of this event. It will be held at Damon’s restaurant at 3025 Olentangy River Rd. from 3 to 6 p.m. Admission is $5 in advance and $10 at the door.
Tickets for the event can be purchased online www.upliftingathletes.org. Donation for CMT can also be made by going to the Web site and clicking on the OSU chapter.
