AURORA — Six years ago, Nate Eckoff -- an all-American high school football kicker -- passed away from leukemia. To honor him and to raise awareness for childhood cancer, Vista Peak High School kicker Noah Karwacki set a goal to raise money this fall to kick cancer back.
Karwacki set a target of raising $5,000 by earning pledges for the field goals he made during the season. He was just shy of his own goal, but a surprise visitor during an event with 104.3 The Fan radio Tuesday afternoon helped change all of that.
"Us kickers are in a different group than a lot of other players, so I wanted to support another local guy here who's doing incredible work," Broncos kicker Brandon McManus said. "[It's] way more stuff than I was ever thinking about doing in high school, just the effort to raise money for childhood cancer."
McManus donated $3,000 to Noah's cause, helping the high schooler exceed his fundraising goal.
"That was crazy, I did not expect that at all. I was so surprised, I was overwhelmed with joy, it was great," Kawracki said. "It makes me feel so happy, it's amazing how if you pay something forward, other people will come in and it just spreads like a wildfire. It's just really crazy how everything turned out and how much awareness has spread."