Syracuse has joined forces with the Uplifting Athletes chapter in Syracuse to host a touchdown drive for the Orange’s game against Central Michigan on Saturday at 12:30 p.m. in the Carrier Dome.

Every touchdown scored by SU on Saturday will raise a set amount of money for Uplifting Athletes to invest in research and awareness for anaplastic astrocytoma.

The cause relates to the Syracuse Football community as former punter and team captain Rob Long was diagnosed with the rare form of brain cancer in 2010, but has since been in remission.

“It’s very humbling to have the support of the current team,” Long said at an Uplifting Athletes event in July.

The amount of money raised per SU touchdown depends on the amount donated to the cause on its PledgeIt.org page, and was at $81 per touchdown as of Sept. 15.

According to the cause’s PledgeIt.org page, Uplifting Athletes is hoping to raise up to $5,000 from Saturday’s game against the Chippewas begins.

Uplifting Athletes is a national non-profit organization has 25 chapters across the country, including outlets in fellow Atlantic Coast Conference schools North Carolina State, Boston College, Florida State, Clemson and Virginia.

Each chapter chooses one out of approximately 7,000 rare diseases to support through charitable and philanthropic events.

The Syracuse chapter of Uplifting Athletes was founded in 2013 in part due to the work of former Orange long snapper Sam Rodgers, a native of State College, Pennsylvania, where the initial Uplifting Athletes Chapter was founded.

The touchdown pledge is Uplifting Athlete’s second event on the Syracuse University campus. The first was “Lift for Life” — a workout event for SU’s football team on the field of J.S. Coyne Field — where players participated in various physically-demanding relay races.

Rodgers graduated from Syracuse last year, and handed his Syracuse chapter presidency off to junior center Jason Emerich, who appeared in the Orange’s 30-17 win last Saturday when starting center Rob Trudo went down with an injury.

Emerich led the organization of the chapter’s first on-campus, public event.

“We’re a big family on the football team,” Emerich said in July at Lift for Life. “We wanted to help guys out in our family … And we just wanted to raise money, raise awareness for people fighting the same fight as (Rob Long) is.”

Published on September 15, 2015 at 10:06 pm

Contact Connor: cgrossma@syr.edu | @connorgrossman