been on Portledge School\u2019s varsity golf team<\/a> since middle school.<\/p>\n\u201cThey saved me, so it\u2019s my duty to return the favor,\u201d Skylar Friedman, 17, told The Post. Heather Khalifa for the NY Post<\/p>\n
\u201cIf somebody pledges two dollars a putt and hits 80 of them, that\u2019s $160 easily made.\u201d<\/p>\n
Friedman, who dreams of one day becoming a mechanical engineer, has raised over $66,000 toward his latest lofty goal of $250,000. But over the last seven years, he\u2019s already generated $700,000 for the specialized hospital near and dear to his heart.<\/p>\n
Rough start<\/p>\n
During an ultrasound before he was born, doctors discovered an abnormal mass in the right lower lobe of Friedman\u2019s lungs, which presented the threat of a fatal heart attack.<\/p>\n
Friedman is a youth advisor to the Children\u2019s Hospital of Philadelphia. Courtesy of Skylar Friedman<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was supposed to be a happy memory of finding out if I was a boy or a girl,\u201d he said, adding that local doctors were unfamiliar with the growth.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a very rare condition that I had. So it was probably the first time they had ever seen it.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Friedman family traveled to Philadelphia for their infant son\u2019s successful procedure that required the removal of the bottom of his lung \u2014 and he\u2019s \u201cbeen able to breathe easily and live ever since,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
During an ultrasound before he was born, doctors discovered an abnormal mass in the right lower lobe of Friedman\u2019s lungs. Heather Khalifa for the NY Post<\/p>\n
While he doesn\u2019t remember the intensity or medical marvel, Friedman is well aware of the warmth that the children\u2019s hospital personnel continue to exhibit during his frequent follow-ups \u2014 he still travels there twice annually to address his asthma and other conditions.<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery time I\u2019ve gone there, I\u2019ve just been struck with how overly kind and caring the doctors and all staff are,\u201d said Friedman, who sits on the hospital\u2019s youth advisory council and has given speeches on patient care.<\/p>\n
But he wanted to do more. So seven years ago he recruited his long-time golf trainer, Adam Laird, to use their shared passion for the game to make a difference.<\/p>\n
The Friedman family traveled to Philadelphia for their infant son\u2019s successful procedure that required the removal of the bottom of his lung. Heather Khalifa for the NY Post<\/p>\n
\u201cI never knew Sky as a kid who was sick,\u201d Laird said. \u201cI knew him as happy-go-lucky. He doesn\u2019t just think about himself, he uses his success to fill the cups of others. \u2026 I take a lot of inspiration from him.\u201d<\/p>\n
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They began with an \u201cimpromptu\u201d golf marathon challenge, where Laird played a whopping 24 hours straight at North Shore Country Club in Glen Head to raise $17,000.<\/p>\n
The concept continued and more massive donations started to pour in. Friedman even joined in with a \u201cmini marathon\u201d of 100 holes that left the teen using his putter \u201cas a cane to walk.\u201d<\/p>\n
Friedman completed a 100 hole mini golf marathon to raise money for the Children\u2019s Hospital of Philadelphia. Courtesy of Skylar Friedman<\/p>\n
Last year, as a way to \u201cgreatly grow the scale\u201d and reach more people, the duo landed on a remote putt challenge. Friedman was touched to recently learn that all his high school teammates will be participating in the challenge next week.<\/p>\n
\u201cNow we have people in about a dozen states doing it \u2026 and about 1,000 individual donors this year,\u201d said Friedman, who published \u201cIt Could Be Worse,\u201d<\/a> a book about his life in March.<\/p>\n\u201cGiving back, it feels like my purpose. If I can reach one person with my story, then it is all worth it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"He\u2019s paying them back with each putt. A Long Island high school golfer with a deeper calling has…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":302783,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[47],"tags":[245,29749,1430,12800,210,10858,6084,153788,5248,7834,62,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-302782","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-golf","8":"tag-children","9":"tag-country-clubs","10":"tag-golf","11":"tag-golf-course","12":"tag-health","13":"tag-high-schools","14":"tag-long-island","15":"tag-medical-miracles","16":"tag-metro","17":"tag-nassau-county","18":"tag-sports","19":"tag-united-states","20":"tag-unitedstates","21":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115372901393713681","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/302782","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=302782"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/302782\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/302783"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=302782"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=302782"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=302782"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}