The Eagles Autism Challenge raised over $8M this weekend for the Eagles Autism Foundation!! Kudos to everyone involved.

At 7 a.m., with a steady rain well established in South Philadelphia, dozens of men and women mounted their bicycles and lined up along Lincoln Financial Field Way, waiting for the go-ahead to begin the 50-mile Wawa Classic ride that would take them through Center City Philadelphia, up to and through Manayunk, then Roxborough, and eventually into the surrounding suburbs, exchanged high-fives with quarterback Carson Wentz and tight end Zach Ertz, chanted E-A-G-L-E-S, EAGLES and began pedaling to help change the world.

The Inaugural Eagles Autism Challenge was a two-day event at Lincoln Financial Field that was two years in the making intent to make generational advances in awareness of and research into defeating a condition that impacts one in 59 children who are identified on the autism spectrum, an increase of 15 percent in a calendar year. The Eagles Autism Challenge was the brainchild of Chairman and CEO Jeffrey Lurie and it debuted in spectacular, and collaborative, fashion, despite the nasty mid-May weather.

“Congratulations to all of you who didn’t let a little rain get in the way of something so important,” Lurie said afterward in the closing ceremonies. “Today was just the start of change.”