Adds Dr. Marsha Moses, the director of the project, “He’s just another science nerd with us.’’
It is two days after the 24-year-old Boggs took the field against Manchester United, playing with soccer stars he idolized as a child. He has traveled to Boston to work on the 12th floor of the Karp Research Building at Children’s Hospital. It’s not something he talks about often. His road roommate, Stephen McCarthy, only found out when Boggs needed to stay late after a team-arranged visit to the hospital.
His teammates left. He stayed, put on his lab coat, and picked up his pipettes.
“I just want to help and give,’’ Boggs said. “That’s all I want to do. I want to learn. Every time I’ve ever volunteered anywhere I always feel like I’m coming off as being selfish because I feel like I get more out of it than I would have ever thought possible.
“I see the birth date of a child and then I see what date that they had their operation and I see they’re 4 years old. It’s not right. It’s sad and you realize how lucky you are. And then you realize that that’s going to change not only this person’s life, but the family’s life.’’
Rare request When Moses got the initial e-mail from Boggs, she was, admittedly, skeptical. She had never received an inquiry from a professional athlete. So she looked him up, searching for some reason a Revolution player would be interested in volunteering at her lab.
“I thought, ‘Could this be real?’ ’’ Moses said. “I thought it was really unique, really terrific. And I said, ‘Sure, why not?’ ’’
Boggs, who had spent his college years at the University of South Florida volunteering at the Moffitt Cancer Center and the Shriners Hospital, had accompanied teammates on a trip to beautify the Yawkey Family Inn midway through last season. He had expressed interest in giving his time, and received Moses’s contact information. The former Rhodes Scholar candidate wanted to utilize his degree in biomedical sciences and see if scientific research might be in his post-soccer future.
