For the third consecutive year, four athletes from Eastern have traveled to Philadelphia to go to the Uplifting Athletes conference.  

This year, redshirt sophomore defender Elizabeth Galvin and junior forward Katiebeth May represented women’s soccer, and redshirt sophomore quarterback Blainey Dowling and senior safety Tienne Fridge represented football. 

According to the official Uplifting Athletes website, “Uplifting Athletes is a community unified under the idea that no person should ever feel alone. We harness the power of sport to invest in the lives of people impacted by rare diseases so that everyone has hope for the future.” 

The tradition of going to the conference was passed down from previous athletes to the ones of the team who would keep up with the work the foundation entails. 

Last summer, when Eastern’s football team did their Lift for Life workout, that’s when Dowling and Fridge got more information about Uplifting Athletes. Both Dowling and Fridge immediately wanted to participate and help.  

“Kaelin [Drakeford] and Nick [Coates] kind of got our foot in the door,” Fridge said. “This year, we got to understand more about it. We’re trying to do more events on campus and opportunities to get people involved and do something, some type of competitive event where you can find a way to measure or a way for donations.” 

Three out of the four athletes went to the conference not knowing much about rare diseases. The conference hit closer to home to Dowling than the others. 

Dowling’s younger brother was diagnosed with narrow blastoma when he was two years old and is now in remission. Dowling’s father currently has stage four prostate cancer.  

“Six months ago, my dad was diagnosed with stage four prostate cancer, which doesn’t have a cure right now,” Dowling said. “With rare diseases, we raise money for it. That funding goes into research to try and find cures for it. It’s something I’m really passionate about because I see it firsthand in my family.” 

Going to the conference was a big thing for all the athletes. They wanted to learn more and help in some way.  

For women’s soccer, Glavin and May are the ones that organize any volunteering events for the soccer team, so they were an easy pick to go to Philadelphia. 

“It was something I was always kind of interested in, but I didn’t know a lot about,” May said. “I was really excited just to learn more about what it actually is, and what they did. I’ve heard really good things about it. I’ve heard people had a lot of fun going. So I was just really excited and happy that I got to be a part of it.” 

The group said the opportunity to go to this conference made them look at life differently, not taking anything for granted. 

“It was just one of those experiences that I think went by so fast, and we were both in awe the whole weekend,” Galvin said. “All the people we got to meet, it was all amazing.” 

Galvin also said that the conference made her realize she can be making a change now, no matter what her age is.  

“It also sinks in that I can do something like this with my life and actually have an impact,” Galvin said. “It was really inspiring now as 20 year olds in college to inspire a bunch of other 20 year olds to raise money, but also this doesn’t have to just end when I graduate, which is cool.” 

The main event was the night of Jan. 31, in which they showed up a little late due to travel delays, but they still enjoyed seeing the patients and hanging out with them.  

“It’d definitely be great to spend more time with them, but a lot of it was more so learning about the event and just learning what you can do to help fundraise it,” Dowling said. 

Fridge said the organization helped put them in their shoes. He said the activities they did made Fridge understand “how it can really feel hopeless” and how alone one can feel. 

“I’ve seen the logo, and I’ve heard of Live for Life and about the organization, but I didn’t really know anything about it,” Fridge said. “But realizing how much [Uplifting Athletes] actually impacted families directly. They really did take care of us, and it’s a good organization.” 

Galvin and May agreed that the experience was one that was once in a lifetime, and it was exciting getting to meet different college athletes that all want to help out in the same way. 

“We made some friends you usually see from other schools as your competitors and your opponents, but then to come together for a bigger cause was just kind of refreshing,” Galvin said. 

Many across the country coming together for a good cause to help make a change for their communities is something Dowling and Fridge appreciated. 

“Putting aside our competitiveness, we’re all coming together for a good event for a good reason, so it was cool meeting all the other athletes.” Dowling said. “A lot of us are staying in touch, you know, we can definitely bounce ideas off each other on what they’re going to do in the summer to help raise money.” 

Drakeford and former Panther Brandon Guido partnered up with Uplifting Athletes in the 2023 season for a touchdown and turnover pledge drive. Dowling and Fridge hope to do more touchdown and turnover pledge drives throughout the 2025 season. 

Women’s soccer ended up raising over $2,000 to go towards research for the foundation, and they’re hoping to raise more for the 2025 season. 

Payton Liggins can be reached at 581-2812 or at paliggins@eiu.edu.