Penn State football continues support for rare disease community in 19th annual Lift for Life

The decision to get involved with Penn State’s chapter of Uplifting Athletes — an organization with the mission of inspiring the rare disease community with hope through the power of sport — was an easy one for Chris Stoll. The Penn State longsnapper lost his grandfather to Lewy body dementia two years ago and uses the organization to help create awareness about rare diseases and honor his late grandfather.

“I got involved because of my grandfather,” Stoll said. “Just knowing that community, it’s a tight-knit community. But I want to embrace our community as a football team and staff so we can help them out as much as we can.”

The organization held its 19th annual Lift for Life event at Penn State’s practice fields. The event supports Uplifting Athletes and its commitment to life skills development, patient-focused programs and rare disease research.

Stoll, the Penn State chapter’s president for the 2022 season, lost his grandfather during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic, so the return of fans to Thursday evening’s event was especially meaningful for him.

“Allowing us to have fans here again is awesome,” he said. “Seeing how my teammates have rallied around the cause for not only funding but raising awareness in general for those community members, I think that’s the most important part.”

Thursday’s edition of Lift for Life involved the offense taking on the defenses is various battles of strength, including a bench press competition.

Stoll was happy to see his teammates rally behind him as the leader and get themselves involved as they try to benefit the rare disease community. His experiences helped push some of them to increase their involvement in the organization.

One of the athletes participating Thursday — safety Keaton Ellis — has long known of the experience through growing up in State College.

“It means a lot,” Ellis said. “It’s great for the community. It’s great to raise money (to fight) rare diseases. I’m just really grateful to have the opportunity to do this. To come back and have people come and actually enjoy themselves and just raise money for a good cause. ... From being here, I’d heard of it and heard what impact it really does make.”