Simms picks up award
If there are two words to describe Liz Simms, they would be busy and selfless.
The former standout runner and team captain for the Butler High School track and field team was honored June 17 as one of two winners of the Mylan Positive Athlete of the Year award.
“I didn’t expect to win a scholarship because they had all these great nominees, people who have been through a lot,” Simms said. “I was very honored and humbled they would pick me out of all these great athletes and great people.”
The award was presented by Positive Athlete founder and Pittsburgh Steeler great Hines Ward at the Positive Athlete Pittsburgh awards banquet which was held at The Senator John Heinz History Center.
“It was great to see what they do to recognize all these positive athletes,” Simms said. “It was amazing to meet Hines Ward because he has had such an amazing impact on Pittsburgh and he’s just a positive person in general.”
Simms earned a $5,000 college scholarship from Mylan, which is just the tip of the iceberg of her previous off-the-field accomplishments.
She has also been recognized with the WPIAL Scholar Athlete award and received a scholarship to run track and field at Davidson College in the fall.
Simms started Butler High’s Best Buddies program, that is designed to build one-on-one relationships between people with or without intellectual and developmental disabilities.
“It’s just a way to connect because we don’t normally get to talk to the kids in the special education classes,” Simms said. “Sometimes they can feel left out of the student body and we just wanted to make sure they feel like they are included and are a very important part of our school.”
Simms also has raised money for the Alzheimer’s Foundation and has organized volunteers for her local Relay for Life.
In addition, she has coordinated walk and run events to give back to local charities, with a focus on diabetes in honor of her twin sister, who lives with Type 1 diabetes. But that is not the only cause she holds dear to her heart.
“I’ve also gotten involved in the leukemia and lymphoma society and we raised some money through some events,” Simms said. “And that was very important to me because a family friend of ours had gotten diagnosed with leukemia.”
Simms will continue her track and field career at Davidson in the fall and says she plans to study either biomedical engineering or biology on a pre-med track.
Even with everything she has on her plate, Simms still says she will continue work on the many programs she runs and helps throughout her college days.
“A big part of my life is time management,” Simms said. “But I’ve been doing a lot of things since the day I was born and it’s just a part of the person I am now.
“Honestly, at this point if I were to drop everything and only focus on one thing, it would probably drive me crazy.”
