The Boomer Esiason Foundation has awarded prestigious “Sacks for CF” academic scholarships to 30 outstanding students with cystic fibrosis.

Through the NFL season, longtime BEF partner Abbvie makes a donation to the BEF Sacks for CF scholarship program for every quarterback sack recorded during NFL Monday Night Football games. Then, during the Super Bowl, these funds are awarded to college students with cystic fibrosis based on academic achievement and adherence to daily CF therapy.

The Sacks for CF scholarship winners for 2017-2018 are:

 

Allison Brann                    Boston College

Taylor Brown                    Saint Norbert College

Caroline Castonguay       Mount Holyoke College

Matthew Fielder               University of Colorado

Peyton Laffoon                 Bakersfield College

Anna  Rogers                   Georgetown University

Tyler Roye                        Texas A & M

Logan Twohey                  University of Louisville

Jo Lauren Weaver            University of Florida

Juliann Yungkans              Arizona State University

                       

Emma Bush                       Michigan State University

Olivia Owens                     North Carolina State University

Michael Miccioli                 Harvard University

Kathleen Mullins                Northeastern University

Bryce Cornell                     University of Notre Dame

Elizabeth High                   Mount Holyoke College

Camille Niccum                  Eastern Illinois University

Anna  Campbell                 Tulane University

Elizabeth Sullivan               Saint Edward’s University

Rebecca Cedillo                 The University of Texas at Dallas

                       

Andrea Rider                      Iowa State University

Eric Anderson                     Stanford University

Regan Stigall                      Baylor University

Riley Demanche                 Northeastern University

Kimber Blackburn               Appalachian state university

Carly Lickliter                      Ball State University

Jacqueline Johnson            St. Catherine University

Kevin Reis                           Missouri University of Science and Technology

Mackenzie Guilford              The University of Findlay

Shawn King                          Arkansas State University – Newport

 

For more information about the Sacks for CF program, please visit www.SacksForCF.com.

Over the weekend, the cystic fibrosis and sports writing communities lost an important voice with the passing of Frank DeFord. This morning, Boomer reflected on his nearly 30 year friendship with Frank with the CBS Sports Minute.

In the below segment, you can watch Frank Deford sit down with Boomer Esiason to discuss fighting cystic fibrosis, the Boomer Esiason Foundation, and their bond as CF Dads. 

Boomer Esiason and Frank DeFord_HBO Real Sports_Clip from Boomer Esiason Foundation on Vimeo.

 

SOURCE: NPR

Through nearly four decades, at least five presidential administrations and seemingly countless Super Bowls and World Series, NPR listeners could depend on at least one thing in the ever-unpredictable world of athletics: Frank Deford. A mainstay on Morning Edition, the Hall of Fame sportswriter was public radio’s scholar of sports for some 37 years before hanging up his cleats earlier this year.

Deford died Sunday at the age of 78 at his home in Key West, Fla., his wife confirmed to NPR. He leaves behind an astonishing 1,656 commentaries for NPR.

“We are saddened to hear that Frank Deford has passed away,” NPR President and CEO Jarl Mohn said in a statement Monday. “Since 1980, Frank voiced sports commentary for NPR, leaving us 1,656 of his signature insights into the world of sports and the human stories behind athletic triumphs. He was a beloved colleague and a signature voice of public radio.”

Upon his retirement earlier this year, Deford himself expressed gratitude for this longstanding relationship with listeners.

“The wonderful thing about delivering sports commentary on NPR was that because it has such a broad audience, I was able to reach people who otherwise had little or no interest in sport — especially as an important part of our human culture,” Deford said at the time.

“Nothing made me happier than to hear from literally hundreds of listeners who would tell me how much the commentaries revealed about a subject they otherwise had never cared much for. I’ll forever be grateful to NPR that they gave me such extraordinary freedom. … It was 37 years of a fond relationship.”

As NPR’s Tom Goldman notes, that relationship didn’t exactly begin as a long-term commitment. In fact, at the time he was recruited by a Morning Edition that was still in its infancy, Deford hadn’t expected to contribute his commentaries for more than a few months.

After all, back in 1979, Deford was already one of the star writers at Sports Illustrated, having already been with the magazine for about a decade and a half. He was an accomplished sportswriter, producing pieces that would ultimately earn him the honor of U.S. Sportswriter of the year six times, according to SI. He had nothing to prove.

Still, he embraced the opportunity.

“I am something of a ham,” he told Tom earlier this month. “Yeah, I’d always been a writer. But in high school I acted in plays. So it wasn’t as if you had to drag the words out of my vocal chords.”

And so what began as a brief gig in 1980 became a deep and lasting relationship with NPR’s listeners. Each week, he would voice opinions both creative and controversial, references to Shakespeare and scathing takedowns — not just of commissioners but even occasionally entire sports, as some ice hockey and soccer fans may still remind you.

His body of work on NPR — as well as in Sports Illustrated, HBO’s Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel and 20 books of his own — earned him not just listeners’ loyalty but his profession’s and the nation’s highest honors, too: an induction into the National Sports Media Association Hall of Fame in 1998, and a National Humanities Medal in 2013.

He was the first sportswriter to win that medal.

“A dedicated writer and storyteller, Mr. Deford has offered a consistent, compelling voice in print and on radio, reaching beyond scores and statistics to reveal the humanity woven into the games we love,” President Barack Obama said of Deford in a statement at the time.

All the while, Deford remained an evangelist for the games he loved — and for the crucial role they continue to play in our lives.

“This is part of your life — it’s the second tier,” he told Tom. “The first tier is eating, drinking and procreation. The second tier is religion, the spirit, music, art and the physical. Sports. It deserves to have as much attention paid to it, seriously.”

Web MD Education and the Boomer Esiason Foundation, through a strategic collaboration, developed an activity for people with cystic fibrosis (CF) and their care partners, as well as others who want to learn why and how to follow a CF treatment plan more consistently. The goals are to learn ways to regularly stick with your treatment plan and to get inspired, confident, and committed to being physically active.

VIEW THE ACTIVITY HERE

 

Excerpt from the WebMD Education activity from Michelle Pelini on Vimeo.

This footage is an excerpt from the WebMD Education activity “Managing Your Cystic Fibrosis Treatment Plan for a Fuller Life” featuring video interviews with Dr. Natalie West and Jerry Cahill, CF Ambassador for Education & Grants at BEF. 

Supported by an independent educational grant from Vertex Pharmaceuticals Inc. and Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corp. 

Boomer Esiason Foundation to Participate in 2016 Cantor Fitzgerald Charity Day

Event to Honor the 15th Anniversary of the 9/11 World Trade Center Attacks

The Boomer Esiason Foundation (BEF), a nonprofit organization dedicated to empowering the cystic fibrosis (CF) community through fundraising for research, programs, scholarships, transplant grants, and educational resources, today announced its participation in the 2016 Cantor Fitzgerald Charity Day. BEF and Cantor Fitzgerald have a long-standing history, dating back to 1995 when the foundation moved into Cantor Fitzgerald offices in the North Tower of the World Trade Center. The foundation has participated in numerous consecutive Charity Days, which were started to honor the 658 Cantor Fitzgerald friends and colleagues and 61 Eurobrokers employees lost in the 9/11 World Trade Center attacks. Among those lost was Tim O’Brien, Boomer Esiason’s close friend and an original member of BEF’s Board of Directors.

Every year around the anniversary of the terrorist attacks, Cantor Fitzgerald and BGC Partners honor those who perished by distributing 100% of global revenues on Charity Day to The Cantor Fitzgerald Relief Fund (”Cantor Relief”). It is the mission of Cantor Relief to provide aid to victims of terrorism, natural disasters and other emergencies, as well as to a wide variety of other charitable organizations providing assistance to those in need. For this annual day, The Cantor Fitzgerald Relief Fund invites celebrity guests from the entertainment and sports industries to work with licensed brokers and their clients to raise money and awareness for a variety of causes.   

“Cantor Relief’s Charity Day is an event that we hold very dear to our hearts at BEF, and on the 15th anniversary of the 9/11 World Trade Center attacks, this event gives us an opportunity to reflect. We lost many friends that day, so while Charity Day is bittersweet for me and all of us at the foundation, it also serves a reminder that positivity and generosity can grow out of tragic circumstances,” said Boomer Esiason, founder of BEF.  

To date, The Cantor Fitzgerald Relief Fund has raised and distributed over $292 million, with Charity Day raising approximately $125 million globally.

 

About the Boomer Esiason Foundation 
Founded in 1993 by Boomer Esiason and his wife, Cheryl, after their son was diagnosed with cystic fibrosis, the Boomer Esiason Foundation (BEF) works to ensure that people living with CF and their loved ones are encouraged, empowered and educated to take an active role in treating the disease. BEF aids the CF community through fundraising, programs, scholarships, transplant grants and educational resources. The passionate work of a committed core of volunteers alongside leaders in the medical and business communities allows BEF to raise awareness, money and quality of life for those affected by this deadly disease.
For more information, visit to www.esiason.org.

 

About The Cantor Fitzgerald Relief Fund
Founded in the wake of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center, The Cantor Fitzgerald Relief Fund has raised and distributed approximately $180 million to over 800 families and 932 children of the victims of that tragedy. Since 9/11, The Cantor Fitzgerald Relief Fund expanded its scope to not only include victims of terrorism, but to also assist victims of natural disasters and emergencies, including victims of Superstorm Sandy, the tornado in Moore, Oklahoma, Hurricane Katrina, the tsunami of 2004 and the Haiti earthquake.
The Cantor Fitzgerald Relief Fund also works to assist wounded members of the U.S. military and a wide variety of other charitable organizations. Since its inception, The Cantor Fitzgerald Relief Fund has distributed over $292 million.

The Cantor Fitzgerald Relief Fund is unique in that it often provides direct assistance directly to the people affected by these tragedies without intermediary or secondary organizational involvement. Cantor Fitzgerald Chairman and CEO Howard Lutnick and the partners of Cantor Fitzgerald underwrite all the expenses of the Fund so that 100% of every dollar raised goes directly to those in need.

For more information, please visit www.cantorrelief.org.

 

About Cantor Fitzgerald, L.P.
Cantor Fitzgerald, L.P. is a financial services firm with operating units that are involved in a variety of market-based business initiatives. From its position as a leading financial intermediary in both the equity and fixed income markets, Cantor has expanded the scope of its business to include portfolio trading, investment banking, financial spread betting, market advisory, energy brokerage, CO2 emissions trading and electronic trading technology. Cantor brings its experience and expertise in the financial markets and its legacy of innovation in technology to benefit institutional investors and traders around the world. Whether creating new products and services or enabling its clients to trade more efficiently and effectively through cutting edge technological solutions, Cantor is reinventing markets every day.

Watch the CFurther: Empowering Self Care From a Young Age webcast, proudly brought to you by the Boomer Esiason Foundation and Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corporation. This webcast offers practical advice to caregivers on finding the right balance between shifting the responsibilities of managing cystic fibrosis (CF) treatments to their children while still providing needed support.

 

 

 

Moderated by Kat Quinn, BSW, MS, a mother of a 9-year-old girl with CF, and founder of the Blooming Rose Foundation, the webcast features an expert panel that includes:

• Tess Dunn, 20-year-old CF patient, singer-songwriter and CF advocate
• Siri Vaeth Dunn, MSW,  mother of Tess, social worker and program and outreach manager at Cystic Fibrosis Research, Inc.
• Dr. Susanna McColley, pediatric pulmonologist in Chicago, Illinois, professor and Associate Director of Cystic Fibrosis Center Division of Pulmonary Medicine Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago

Download the presentation slides to follow along with the webcast discussion.

Download the following Tip Sheets based on the panelists’ advice:

• Travel Smart: Tips for Vacation
• Talk It Out: Tips on Disclosure
• Check It Off: CF Checklists  For Teens
• Let’s Talk: CF 101 For Kids