To that point, this past fall at North Central College in Naperville, the Chargers celebrated a day of football with an event to raise money for cancer research to benefit Children’s Memorial Hospital. Our invitation was extended to the public and those directly affiliated with Children’s Memorial Hospital. Former patients or current patients were honored by the Chargers as VIP’s throughout the day. And what a day it was for these special recipients: exciting football from all the teams in the program along with raffles, face painting, and a field goal kicking contest at half time of each game.

At each game, the VIP’s participated by running through the tunnel prior to each game, the coin toss, the field goal kicking contest and/or cheering on the sidelines with the Charger cheerleading squads or along the sidelines with the Naperville Chargers during a game.

Our children also raised money to donate in many other creative ways: letters to families and friends, garage sales, car washes, donut sales at area soccer games, and, yes, some even raked leaves for neighbors.

All in all, in our first year, the Naperville Chargers program raised over $4,500 for Children’s Memorial Hospital. Thanks to its overwhelming success “Chargers Tackling Cancer’ will be an annual event for our program. We hope to continue to make a difference in our community by having our children –be they football players or cheerleaders- grow as contributors to our community.

The Chargers would like to extend a special thanks to Erik Milliren, Laura Thompson, Lisa Howard and the entire Committee for the inspiration that led to this event and their selfless work which made it memorable for all.