>> Prior to pledgeit.org I had started charity when I was in college.
A fundraising event called the Lift for Life became a charity called Uplifting Athletes.
And it started when my father was diagnosed with a rare cancer and we were told by doctors
and by other charities that there was nothing that could be done because it wasn't a priority.
So my teammates and I decided to, my football teammates here at Penn State and I decided
to take the spotlight that we had as football players
and shine it on people who needed a voice.
You know, this community of rare disease patients.
And the event that we did here at Penn State was very well received.
We did it the first two years here and then we started to expand to other college campuses.
And the charity Uplifting Athletes has had
over $400 million impact on the rare disease community.
And through the course of Uplifting Athletes I've developed a network where 42%
of NFL players have come from a school with an Uplifting Athletes chapter.
And you know, a big part of my purpose through Uplifting Athletes was to teach these people
of social influence life skills necessary to have a positive impact on society.
And pledgeit has really just been kind of a natural iteration of that for me.