LOWELL, Mass. – UMass Lowell Men's Lacrosse Head Coach Ed Stephenson officially welcomed 12-year old Isaiah Cruz (Lowell, Mass.) through a Team IMPACT Draft Day event on Wednesday evening at Costello Athletic Center. 
 
Cruz is currently the ninth match to be paired with the River Hawks thanks to the Boston-based nonprofit organization whose mission is to improve the quality of life for children facing chronic illnesses.

Isaiah is one of 30,000 patients in the United States living courageously with cystic fibrosis (CF), a disease predominantly diagnosed in children by the age of two.

"We've had a chance to get to know Isaiah in the last five weeks, and everyone is excited to officially draft him to the program," said Head Coach Ed Stephenson. "His enthusiasm and energy are contagious and he has already become a cherished member of the team."

Team IMPACT is a national nonprofit that connects children facing serious and chronic illnesses with local college athletic teams, forming  life-long bonds and life-changing outcomes. Through the Team IMPACT CF Project sponsored by Vertex Pharmaceuticals, children who have CF, like Isaiah are drafted onto local college athletic teams and become an official member of the team to support the child's physical, social and emotional needs. By being a part of the UMass Lowell Men's Lacrosse program, Isaiah will attend River Hawks practices, games, team dinners, events, and more. 
 
Since 2011, Team IMPACT has matched more than 1,400 children with more than 500 colleges and universities in 47 states, reaching over 50,000 participating student-athletes. The child joins the athletic team and the student-athletes join the child's support team – from Draft Day to Graduation. During the journey, the child gains strength, camaraderie and support while the student-athletes experience lessons of courage, resiliency and perspective they can't learn in a classroom. Isaiah's determination to persevere through adversity has already made her an inspiration to the rest of her future Riverhawk teammates.

Team IMPACT is a national nonprofit headquartered in Boston that connects children facing serious or chronic illnesses with college athletic teams, forming life-long bonds and life-changing outcomes. Team IMPACT has more than 1,000 teams across the country waiting to be matched with children, ages 5-16, who have been diagnosed with a life-threatening or chronic illness and who could benefit from becoming a member of the team. If you know a child who may be interested, visit www.goteamimpact.org for more information.

The CF community motivates Vertex employees each day to dig deeper, to do more, to explore the "what ifs," and to push the boundaries of what we know. We aim to discover and develop medicines that will treat the underlying cause of CF for the vast majority of people with the disease, and our ultimate goal is to cure it. Beyond our transformational medicines, we help people with CF lead active lives and pursue higher education, and we fund independent research and innovative patient centric programs. To learn more please visit www.vrtxallincf.com.

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