June 11, 2014
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. - Activities related to the 12th Annual Penn State Penn State Uplifting Athletes "Lift For Life" will begin on July 9, with a more fan interactive Lift For Life set for Saturday, July 12.
Penn State Uplifting Athletes president Ben Kline (Seven Valleys) announced the schedule for the events that will benefit the Kidney Cancer Association and kidney cancer patients. During the 11 years of the Penn State Lift For Life, members of the Penn State football team have raised in excess of $825,000 for the Kidney Cancer Association, including a record totals above $100,000 in each of the past three years.
Activities related to the Penn State Lift For Life will again take place on the same weekend as the Central Pennsylvania Festival of the Arts, more commonly referred to as Arts Fest.
On Wednesday, July 9, members of the Nittany Lion football team will be a part of the Arts Fest Children and Youth Day. The players will be helping children draw posters of the Lift For Life event from 10 a.m.-3 p.m. at the Sidney Friedman Park near Memorial Field in downtown State College.
On Friday, July 11, the State College Spikes will join the fight against kidney cancer when they host Uplifting Athletes Night at Medlar Field at Lubrano Park. The Spikes will be hosting Brooklyn at 7 p.m. and a portion of the tickets sold will go to Uplifting Athletes. Additional details will be announced soon.
On Saturday, July 12, a modified Penn State Lift For Life will be held from 11 a.m.-2 p.m. at the Penn State Lacrosse Field on University Drive. Football team members will be available for autographs and photos and compete in the tug of war and tire flip events similar to previous Lift For Life events.
Football squad members will conduct two kids clinics from 11 a.m.-1 p.m. and all the players will be available from 1-2 p.m. for autographs and photos. The participants also will receive a Lift For Life T-shirt.
Admission to the Penn State Lift For Life is $10 for adults, while children 12 and under are free. There is a $10 fee for youth who want to participate in one of the clinics with the players. All proceeds from the Penn State Lift For Life will benefit kidney cancer patients and their families.
Fans can make a Lift For Life donation by visiting the Penn State Uplifting Athletes website at: http://www.upliftingathletes.org/ua-chapter/penn-state.
Penn State football teammates serving as 2014 Uplifting Athletes officers are: president - linebacker Ben Kline; vice president - running back Deron Thompson (Lititz); secretary - tight end Adam Breneman (Mechanicsburg); director of marketing - tight end Jesse James (Glassport); compliance manager - running back Akeel Lynch (Toronto, Ontario, Canada) and director of fundraising - tight end Brent Wilkerson (Clinton, Md.). Former football squad members and current Penn State students Joe Marvin (Treasurer) and Bryce Wilson (director of operations) also are officers.
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 the 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.
The Uplifting Athletes Chapters are: Penn State, Nebraska, Ohio State, Kent State, NC State, Fordham, St. Francis, Notre Dame, Maryland, Illinois, Northwestern, Princeton and Colgate. 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.).