Many patients at Blank Children’s Hospital in Des Moines considered Central College’s football players winners before this year’s preseason practices had even started.  Five Central players distributed more than $1,300 worth of toys to the patients this past Wednesday.

The players took the money they raised to the store to purchase gifts, picking out more than 80 toys. The players then went room to room at the hospital and let each patient choose a present. The funds were raised as part of a team project that included collecting pledges for a lift-a-thon staged a part of the players’ offseason strength and conditioning workouts.  

The project is player-initiated. Greg Altmaier, an all-America linebacker for the Dutch in 2007, came up with the idea and first led the project in 2006.