Hillsdale College Club Rugby will sponsor a ping pong tournament to raise money for the charity Swim With Mike in the Grewcock Student Union Feb. 25. 

Swim With Mike is a scholarship organization that sponsors physically disabled athletes and former athletes.

Sophomore Charles Kennedy earned a scholarship from the foundation and will run the fundraiser. 

“The Swim With Mike Foundation has not only provided a way for me to finance my education at a college as amazing as Hillsdale, but also reassurance and encouragement to keep tackling these challenges that I face as a result of my injury,” Kennedy said.

The rugby club is sponsoring Kennedy, which allows him to reserve tables for the tournament.

“In order to reserve tables for the tournament I had to get a college-run organization to sponsor me, and the rugby club is filling this role,” Kennedy said.

“Charles approached the club’s leadership team and explained that he needed association with a college club to run his fundraiser,” said David Ard, rugby club president. “We were happy to help support him and his goal of giving back to the Swim with Mike Foundation by sponsoring the fundraiser. “

In August 2009 Kennedy suffered a stroke. He was hospitalized for two months and, during that time, underwent two open-brain surgeries. He was paralyzed on the left side of his body. Upon returning home, he took to daily tasks and did his best to live a normal life, he said. His recovery was significant, but side effects lingered. Paralysis from the knee down on the left side will likely never leave him. Through it all, Kennedy said he has retained the grit of a disciplined athlete.

“I try and look at this less as a deficit and more as a challenge, one that I can wake up and take on everyday,” he said.

The Swim With Mike scholarship program looks to enhance the opportunities of its recipients.

“Our commitment to physically challenged athletes is to ensure that these individuals have the resources and support to thrive, and have an equitable and promising future. Our differences are our strengths, and together, we impact many,” the scholarship’s website reads.

Its origins came when a dirt-biking accident left All-American swimmer Mike Nyeholt paralyzed in 1981. Fellow swim teammates of Mike helped found the scholarship organization and they have helped more than 200 athletes at nearly 150 colleges and universities, according to the website

Kennedy said he wants to use this opportunity to show others that resilience works and that struggle does not define the life of an overcomer.

“I am proud to be a part of their organization and hope that through fundraisers and other such events I can do whatever possible to give other students like me the opportunities I have been so blessed with,” Kennedy said.