Seider Finalist For Rare Disease Champion Award
February 01, 2016 07:33 PM | General
To Vote Click On: http://www.upliftingathletes.org/rare-disease-champion/2016/seider
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. (February 1, 2016) – Uplifting Athletes is pleased to announce that Ja’Juan Seider from West Virginia has been chosen as a finalist for the 2016 Rare Disease Champion Award.
The Uplifting Athletes Rare Disease Champion Award is given annually to a leader in college football who has realized his or her potential to make a positive and lasting impact on the rare disease community.
Nominees for the 2016 award were solicited from any NCAA FBS, FCS, Division II and Division III college football programs nationwide.
Seider is one of six finalists chosen to determine the eighth winner of the Rare Disease Champion award.
A public online vote will be live from February 1st until midnight February 17th to determine the 2016 Rare Disease Champion. You can vote once each day for your favorite finalist at www.upliftingathletes.org/rare-disease-champion.
The finalist with the most votes will be winner. The champion will be officially announced February 18th as part of the Rare Disease Month celebration.
The 2016 Rare Disease Champion will be honored as part of the Maxwell Football Club Awards Gala on March 11th in Atlantic City, New Jersey at the Tropicana.
Of the seven previous Rare Disease Champion winners, four were FBS players, one FBS player, a Division III quarterback and an administrator from AFCA.
Former Auburn and current Pittsburgh Steelers wide receiver Sammie Coates was the 2015 Rare Disease Champion.
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ABOUT THE AWARD
An awareness campaign powered by Uplifting Athletes, the Rare Disease Champion is determined by college football fans and the rare disease community through online voting. The award is presented to the winner at the Maxwell Football Club Awards Gala in Atlantic City, NJ, and celebrated at Uplifting Athletes’ Gridiron Gala in Harrisburg, PA.
Qualified nominees must be a student-athlete, coach, trainer, staff member from a college football program with a rare disease connection. The individual can be surviving or fighting a rare disease, raising money for a rare disease, or is inspired to advocate for others battling a rare disease. A rare disease is defined as one that affects fewer than 200,000 Americans.
Sculpted by world renowned artist Brian Hanlon, the Rare Disease Champion trophy is in the likeness of Mark Herzlich, the former Boston College and current New York Giants linebacker who provided the inspiration for the award after overcoming a life-threatening battle with the rare disease Ewing’s sarcoma in 2009.
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UPLIFTING ATHLETES
Uplifting Athletes is a national nonprofit organization that aligns college football with rare diseases and raises them as a national priority. A rare disease is one that affects fewer than 200,000 Americans and consequently lacks financial incentive to make and market new treatments. Founded in 2007, Uplifting Athletes has had a financial impact of more than $400 million on the rare disease community. By working with college football programs throughout FBS and FCS conferences, Uplifting Athletes inspires the rare disease community with hope through the power of sport and empowers medical researchers to find cures. For more information about Uplifting Athletes visit, www.upliftingathletes.org
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