In the Spring of 2021, one of our players, Tayler Watterson, lost her grandfather to Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (CJD). This year the Husson University Softball team has chosen this foundation for our annual awareness game. The CJD Awareness Game will take place Saturday, April 11th, 2026 at 1pm against Vermont State University Johnson @ the Robert & Frances O’Keefe Softball Field. 

This foundation is a non-profit that raises awareness and uses the donations to further their research to help find a cure or treatment for CJD. CJD is a fatal, neurological disease affecting one person in every million people per year -- which is around 500 U.S. cases a year. Most cases of CJD are sporadic, meaning the cause is unknown. CJD can occur in other forms such as acquired meaning contamination through brain surgery/etc. or consumption of contaminated beef, blood, or a plasma transfusion; it can also be genetic. As of today, there is no known cure or treatment for those with CJD. Since CJD is a rare disease, funding is scarce. More needs to be done to build awareness, raise money for research, and help families from the effects of this disease on their family members. All proceeds from our awareness game and any donations we receive will go directly to the CJD Foundation to build awareness of CJD and raise money for research.