Fraternity charity football game back for second year

A good idea always deserves another go-round.

After raising more than $20,000 last year, the Phi Gamma Delta fraternity will once again take on Lambda Chi Alpha in a tackle football game to raise money for the Sydney Gran Family Fund.

“When we initially kind of conceived the idea of playing a charity football game, we were really hoping to create a long-term charity fund for the fraternity,” Ethan Knight, Philanthropy Chair for Phi Gamma Delta, said. “I think the Sigma Chis at (Ole Miss) do it. They were kind of our inspiration.”

The football game, which will be held at Lee-Scott Academy’s Jed Scott Field at 7 p.m. tonight, raises money for the Sydney Gran Family Fund, a foundation started by former Auburn assistant coach Eddie Gran in memory of his daughter, who passed away at 5 after being diagnosed at birth with Holoprosencephaly, a rare disease which caused her brain to stop developing after three months in the womb.

Gran began the fund in 2005, shortly after Sydney’s death, as an extension of the Children’s Hospital of Alabama.

The fund helps families whose children are receiving treatment at Children’s Hospital in such ways as payment of utility bills, payment of home mortgages and apartment rent, automobile repairs, travel for families and other needs.

“One family had a child who was restricted to a wheelchair,” Knight said. “The single, working mother had a third-floor apartment, and we were able to get her a first-floor apartment while the child was confined to the wheelchair.”

Admission to the game is $10.

“Last year ... raising $20,000 and the support we had from the fraternity and the people that game, that was amazing,” Knight said. “The girls loved the game, and we like to make the girls happy.”

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