The New York Jets hosted their kickoff fundraiser at Top Golf in Parsippany, NJ on Thursday, bringing the team together with sponsors and donors to celebrate the start of the football season while raising money for the New York Jets Foundation and the Lupus Research Alliance.
"It just goes a long way to show that football impacts so much more than just people from an entertainment value," LB Demario Davis said. "But an impact on their everyday lives and to be a part of something like this is just tremendous."
The Lupus Research Alliance is the world's leading private funder of lupus research. In 1999, Jets Chairman Woody Johnson founded the Alliance for Lupus Research after his daughter, Jamie was diagnosed with the autoimmune disease. In 2016, the ALR merged with other Lupus research organizations to form the LRA.
Al Roy, LRA's CEO, spoke at the kickoff fundraiser and touched on the importance of the relationship with the Jets.
"While different missions, we do one thing together and that's serve our communities," Roy said.
The Lupus Research Alliance has awarded more than 675 grants and invested over $284 million in research and its vision to free the world of lupus.
See some of the best images from the annual event held to raise money and awareness for the Lupus Research Alliance.
"Ninety percent of the people it affects are women and rather your immune system helping protect you, which is why we have it, it works against you and starts attacking different organ systems," Roy said. "We don't know why people get it, we don't have a cure, [but] we have new therapies surrounded in the work that the LRA enabled through our investments."
Johnson has donated nearly $160 million to the LRA through his personal philanthropy, and the Jets' foundation has additionally raised more than $3.6 million during previous events.
"[The New York Jets have] been supporting us for many, many years in different events [and] have contributed to our mission to support our work over the years," Roy said. "It never would be forgotten."
Throughout the afternoon, players put their golf skills to the test, playing with the different sponsors of the organization. A field goal post sat in the middle of the driving range, and everyone competed to win prizes including a signed Jets helmet and game tickets.
"Being a Jet is so much more than just being a football player. It's about being part of a first-class community from the top to the bottom," Davis said. "We often get a chance to do that with our fan base, but to be able to do it with our donors and sponsors, who mean so much to the organization as well, is great."
Davis launched a teed-up ball with a 7 iron through the uprights quite a few times throughout the afternoon.
"It's the human interaction where they don't see us behind a helmet where they don't see us behind a helmet or just see us as players or celebrities," Davis said. "They see us as people and we don't see them as just people who are giving money to the organization, or who are supporting the organization. But they're human beings and they have lives and interests, they have goals and ambitions and you get a chance to remove that glass and create that interaction."
