Uplifting Athletes, based in Camp Hill and founded by former Penn State player Scott Shirley of Cumberland County, is in the process of naming its national Rare Disease Champion Award winner.
Four major college football players from around the country are up for the award; and voting ends on Sunday, February 26.
Former Dickinson College quarterback Ian Mitchell won the award in 2010.
Here's the information, courtesy of Uplifting Athletes:
CAMP HILL, Pa. – More than 50,000 votes have been counted for the 2012 Uplifting Athletes Rare Disease Champion Award. And yet, we're only at the halfway mark in voting. Four finalists are up for the national award: Nebraska's Rex Burkhead, North Carolina State's Wayne Crawford, UCLA's Luke Gane and Florida's David Lerner. The honor is presented annually by Uplifting Athletes, a national nonprofit based in Camp Hill, to recognize a leader in the world of college football who has realized his or her potential to make a positive and lasting impact on the rare disease community.
More than 30-million Americans are affected by rare diseases.
The 4th annual award winner will be determined by an online vote.
Voting concludes Sunday, February 26th.
The Champion will be announced at the National Institutes of Health in Washington, D.C. on Wednesday, February 29th. Presentation of the sculpture to the winner will be determined at a later date. Previous winners include American Football Coaches Association Executive Director, Grant Teaff (2009); Dickinson College Quarterback, Ian Mitchell (2010); Princeton Running Back Jordan Culbreath (2011).
To read each finalist’s personal story and connection to the rare disease community as well as to cast your vote for this year’s Champion, log onto: www.upliftingathletes.org/vote. Only one vote per email address.About Uplifting Athletes: Uplifting Athletes is a full service national nonprofit organization aligning college football with rare diseases and raising them as a national priority through research, outreach, education and advocacy.
What makes Uplifting Athletes unique is that our university chapters are run by current football student-athletes, providing them with an opportunity to gain management and leadership skills while learning how to leverage their assets and abilities to make a positive and lasting impact. Each chapter adopts one out of approximately 7,000 rare diseases (such as ALS, Aplastic Anemia, CMT, cystic fibrosis, Ehlers-Danlos, Ewing's Sarcoma, Kidney Cancer, Leukemia, MS, Neimann Pick Type-C, Neuroblastoma, pancreatic cancer, etc.).
