Growing up and seeing my grandmother die of cancer at the young age of 64 made me who I am today. Although I only knew her for eight short years, she showed me what it meant to fight and battle such a horrific disease. She is my inspiration to this day.
Unfortunately, I'm sure many people know or knew somebody that was close to them that battled cancer. This terrible disease that affected my grandmother and many others, has inspired me to fight for them.
Helping this cause is what I truly fight for and what Lebanon Valley Men's Lacrosse has chosen to support since the Crosse Out Cancer game began a year ago. Benefitting the American Cancer Society and Relay for Life, we as a team are supporting cancer research by raising money for those who are battling cancer.
A relatively new charity event in LVC athletics,
Scott Sutton '13,
Ian Schmid '13, Mike Hull '13 and I created the Crosse Out Cancer game last season. In the first annual event, we managed to raise more than $5,000. This may not seem like a mind-blowing amount, but it is $5,000 more toward cancer research. However, monetary gifts are not the only things that make events like these special.
What makes this event special is providing someone with an opportunity to honor someone they lost, a loved one like my Grandmother. Someone that lived an innocent life, only cared about others, and saw the good in everybody. We need more people like this in this world, and the fact that I have the ability to help families save their own loved ones is what inspires me to keep helping The American Cancer Society and Relay For Life.
When creating a game or in this year's case, a Crosse Out Cancer weekend, it does take a lot of communication, planning and creative thinking to try and interconnect lacrosse and the American Cancer Society/Relay For Life. Doing so may be hard, but when we step out on Arnold Field, with our custom Crosse Out Cancer jerseys and see everyone in support of our cause, it's all worth it in the end.
There are plenty of items like t-shirts and rubber bracelets that can be purchased, or you can bid on our one of a kind, custom Crosse Out Cancer Jerseys, and many other things like custom lacrosse heads. Although this stuff makes the event exciting and fun, it is priceless to see how much money we raised to hopefully save that important person in your life.
If it weren't for my grandmother, I don't know where I would be today. Because she taught me how to fight and battle, I am fighting and battling to provide life for those people, just like my grandmother would have done. That is who I play for when I step on that field.
The Crosse Out Cancer games are March 22nd and 23rd at 1 p.m. at Arnold Field. As I stated before, there are some cool items to win so hopefully we see you there to support LVC Men's Lacrosse and the American Cancer Society/Relay For life. It's a great weekend to support a charity that provides life to that certain someone that we all love. I hope to see you all at the games.
GO DUTCHMEN!
The Flex is an occasional series by the editors of GoDutchmen.com (and occasional guest spots from student-athletes like Andrew) offering a different perspective on Lebanon Valley College Athletics.
