Honorary Captain of the Week: Southern Illinois Lineback Chris Presto

This week on FCS Nation’s spotlight series in the third ever season of Northwestern Mutual x FCS Nation x Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation Challenge, FCS Nation is introducing Outside Linebacker Chris Presto of Southern Illinois University. Presto is the fourth honorary captain of the week where we highlight the powerful impact that each and every athlete who have chosen to take a stand for a cause against childhood cancer have had on the movement since its inception just two years ago. Alex’s Lemonade Stand, founded and sustained by Liz Scott who FCS Nation had a chance to talk to earlier this week, began when Scott’s late daughter Alexandra was diagnosed with neuroblastoma right before turning a year old. At the age of 4, Alex expressed her wish to start a lemonade stand to raise money for other kids like her. Since her passing in 2004, Alex has inspired lemonade stands across the world to raise funds for other children who fight relentlessly every day.

Presto, a Florida native, stands at 6’2, 230 lbs. and is just at the front end of his junior year playing for the Salukis of Southern Illinois. Last year he finished 5th on the team with 66 tackles, playing a total of 11 games and made 10 total starts. This year, he’s already knocked out 4 solo tackles.

In a conversation with FCS Nation, Presto, alongside Steve Gross, managing partner for Northwestern Mutual St. Louis, points to this cause and why he felt so connected to it and willing to be an active part in its success, and that happens to be a personal tie.

Full Interview: https://www.fcsnationradio.com/podcast/episode/3edfebe9/honorary-captain-of-the-week-spotlight-chris-prestos-fight-for-a-bigger-cause

“Everybody listening has had interactions with cancer,” Presto said. “But not everyone has had interactions with childhood cancer.” He goes on to explain how each dollar he helps raise for this cause is a dollar toward his high school coach’s daughter’s friend and her family who are currently fighting this battle with their daughter. “I mean, raising the money is the ultimate goal. Bringing that home to him, which is bringing that home to that family, we can say that we helped them. And that’s the biggest thing,” Presto said. Seeing dollars delivered right into their own community, helping those around them where it hits home is what Chris is doing with this challenge at the end of the day, Gross explains.

“Adversity is coming, storms are coming, but it’s football, it’s not life. When you got to go out and face real adversity in life, that’s real,” Presto told FCS Nation. “But we’re not doing that right now. We’re just playing football. And there’s people out there struggling way more than we are.”

To donate on behalf of Chris Presto, all it takes is snapping a pic with a lemon on your head and tagging Alex’s Lemonade Stand and Northwestern Mutual and use the hashtag #GoDawgs and #LemonTopChallenge and Northwestern Mutual automatically donates $10 to Baldwin’s name.