Nutrition major Sam Rodgers, who is a long snapper on the SU Men’s football team has launched “Lift for Life”, a fundraiser for brain cancer research, working in in partnership with his teammates and the national organization, Uplifting Athletes. Rogers is the president of the Syracuse University chapter of Uplifting Athletes, a national organization that partners college football teams to help fight rare disease through research. On July 25, the team will host its first Lift for Life weight lifting competition. In May, Rodgers participated in a Mission trip to Haiti to assist with projects and work with children at an orphanage.
“My teammates and I have decided to raise money for brain cancer since in 2010, Rob Long, one of our team captains, was diagnosed with a brain tumor. Rob could not participate in the end of his senior season and has since gone through 14 months of chemotherapy. After many radiation treatments and surgery, Rob celebrated his two-year anniversary of being cancer free this past spring – a feat that many people diagnosed with this disease do not reach. Rob put his heart into fighting his battle with cancer and as part of his Syracuse family we want to do the same,” explained Rodgers.
On July 25, the team will host its first Lift for Life weight lifting competition, which is organized with the offense and defense squads of the team competing against each other to see which side can lift the most weight. The amount of money raised by each squad will be factored into the final score. “This competition is set up to get as many of my teammates as possible involved with two main goals in mind: first to raise money and awareness for brain cancer and secondly, to build a foundation so that when I graduate in two years, I can appoint another teammate to carry on the tradition of Syracuse Uplifting Athletes.”
Rodgers was recently nominated for the 2013 Allstate Good Works Team, an award that recognizes players for enriching the lives of others while contributing to the greater good of their communities.