Illinois Football raises over $21,000 in support of acoustic neuroma research

Fighting Illini football and Uplifting Athletes held their 2016 Lift for Life event at Memorial Stadium on Friday night, and an incredible $21,735 was raised in support of acoustic neuroma research. Illinois began partnering with the project in 2012 after this rare disease cost former offensive lineman Andrew Carter his college career.

Officially over $21,000 raised for @UpliftingAth at tonight's Lift For Life. #Illini pic.twitter.com/d53QIGcsdZ

— Illini Football (@IlliniFootball) July 2, 2016

Yellow Team, which was sponsored in part by your favorite Illinois blog, finished atop the donation leaderboard with an astounding $2,133 worth of gifts. That's right -- we finally managed to defeat Illini Board in our annual fundraising battle! Bragging rights are great, but we all need to give Robert a round of applause. His efforts in organizing our small clash led directly to at least $3,000 in donations.

We'd also like to give a special shoutout to Illinois offensive lineman Joe Spencer, who has organized this event for the past several years. He's going well out of his way to make a big difference in the community.

If my math is correct, in just the last three years, Joe's efforts have resulted in $48,000 raised for acoustic neuroma. Incredible effort.

— Robert (@ALionEye) July 2, 2016

So thank you to everyone who contributed to Lift for Life (especially Lisa Pierce and our friends at Heartland Dental in Effingham, IL); our come-from-behind-victory wouldn't have been possible without you! Let's do it again next year!

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