UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Senior guard Eric Shrive (Scranton) has been elected president of Penn State’s Uplifting Athletes chapter and will lead Nittany Lion football student-athletes in 2013.
Vice president of Penn State’s Uplifting Athletes chapter the past two years, Shrive has been a significant contributor in the planning of the chapter’s events to benefit the Kidney Cancer Association. The most well-known event for Penn State’s Uplifting Athletes chapter is the Penn State Lift for Life, a strength and conditioning challenge among football squad members held each July.
Penn State football teammates joining Shrive as 2013 Uplifting Athletes officers are vice president: senior tackle Adam Gress (West Mifflin, Pa.), head of operations: senior center Ty Howle (Wake Forest, N.C.), secretary: sophomore cornerback Da’Quan Davis (Baltimore) and fundraising chairman: freshman tight end Adam Breneman (Camp Hill).
“I am honored to be elected president and look forward to another successful year with Uplifting Athletes and helping raise awareness for rare diseases,” Shrive said.
Shrive recently was named one of seven finalists for the 2013 Uplifting Athletes Rare Disease Champion Award. He has raised nearly $70,000 for the Kidney Cancer Association during his Penn State career. The honor is presented annually 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.
Fans can vote through Jan. 31 to determine this year’s Rare Disease Champion at www.upliftingathletes.org/vote.
During the 10 years of the Penn State Lift For Life, members of the Nittany Lion football team have raised in excess of $700,000 for the Kidney Cancer Association, including a record $110,374.00 in 2012.
Led by first-year coach Bill O’Brien, the Bear Bryant, Maxwell Football Club and ESPN Coach of the Year, the Nittany Lions posted an 8-4 overall mark and finished second in the Big Ten Leaders Division with a 6-2 record last season. Penn State won eight of its final 10 games. In the season finale, the Nittany Lions beat eventual Big Ten champion Wisconsin, 24-21, in overtime.
Season tickets are available for the 2013 season. The Nittany Lions will host three teams that finished in the 2012 BCS Top 25: Michigan (Oct. 12-Homecoming), Nebraska (Nov. 23) and Kent State (Sept. 21). Purdue, Illinois, Virginia and Eastern Michigan also will visit Beaver Stadium next year. The Nittany Lions open the season Aug. 31 vs. Syracuse at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J.
For information on joining the Nittany Lion Club and purchasing season tickets, as well as club seating in Beaver Stadium, go to www.GoPSUsports.com or call 800-648-8269 (800-NITTANY) from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. weekdays.
Penn State Athletics is on Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/pennstatenittanylions) and Twitter (http://www.gopsusports.com/ot/twitter.html).
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. Current Chapters have been formed at Nebraska, Penn State, Ohio State, Kent State, North Carolina 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 amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, aplastic anemia, Charcot–Marie–Tooth disease, cystic fibrosis, Ehlers-Danlos, Ewing’s sarcoma, kidney cancer, leukemia, multiple sclerosis, Neimann Pick Type-C, neuroblastoma and pancreatic cancer.
