Difference Makers: EWU football player Nolan Ulm shows his heart both on and off the field

Nolan Ulm is all about lighting fires in the hearts of other people.

Some of that work is done in Kelowna, British Columbia, where Ulm grew up. But he’s also done a lot of it in the Cheney and Spokane area, where Ulm has spoken at various schools and invested his time into a variety of organizations.

“I just love leadership,” Ulm said last week. “Hopefully I can ignite a spark within a couple kids.”

Leading by example and by words is a fitting bent for a football player like Ulm, who just finished his sixth year as an Eastern Washington football team player, two of which he served as a captain – and a vocal one, too.

“He wants to be as impactful as he can,” EWU head coach Aaron Best said of Ulm earlier this season. “He’s about as salt-of-the-earth as they come. Football is what he does; it’s not who he is.”

Football-wise, Ulm has now turned his focus to making a professional career out of the sport after suiting up in 57 games for the Eagles, three shy of the program’s all-time career record.

But off the field, his focus continues to be on community.

Some of those are in Kelowna, including Mamas for Mamas, a specialized poverty relief agency that focuses on supporting single mothers. Over the past two years, Ulm has helped raise more than $20,000 for the organization.

He has also coordinated the Make It Happen Football camp in his hometown, an event that aims to educate and empower Canadian athletes.

But in his six years connected to the Spokane area, Ulm’s local involvement has been significant, too.

It started in 2022, when Ulm got involved with Touchdowns for Dollars to benefit the local YMCA. Ulm helped raise $1,100 that first year.

He and former teammate Ahmani Williams then got involved with Make-A-Wish Spokane, organizing a partnership during the Eagles’ spring football game in 2023. Mason, the recipient of the wish, was recently cancer-free, Ulm said. They let him run in a touchdown and gave him a spring ball MVP trophy. The next year, Ulm helped the Eagles do the same thing for five more kids.

“It makes you feel like this is so much bigger than football,” Ulm said. “So that was one of the coolest things we did, partnering with Make-A-Wish.”

Ulm has also gone to various schools, talking and listening to kids and presenting his ideas. He’s been to Riverside, Shadle Park and many other s in the area.

“My thing is all about goal setting, really finding what your vision is and connecting to that,” Ulm said.

Then, most recently, Ulm got connected to Caleb Altmeyer, the founder of Helping Captives, an anti-trafficking and support organization that exists to honor God by providing opportunities for freedom and safety to those exploited by sex trafficking in the greater Spokane area.

“It really feeds into a lot of what my purpose and vision is and where I come from,” Ulm said.

Many of the people Helping Captives serves come from single-parent homes, Ulm said, and Ulm’s mother was single while she was raising him. Ulm has been helping as a spokesman for the organization.

“It’s a huge issue in this world, and finally with social media and organizations like (Helping Captives), we can start to see how big of a problem this is,” Ulm said.

Ulm admitted that his immediate goal is to play football professionally. But part of his motivation for doing so is so that he can leverage his brand toward helping organizations whose missions he believes in.

When he speaks at schools, one of Ulm’s core messages is about course correction. He uses the metaphor of a flight that leaves Los Angeles headed for New York: One shift in direction early in that flight can lead to a destination much farther down the East Coast.

Sharing that message is part of Ulm’s commitment to developing leaders, and his belief that one person’s spark of passion can grow into a fire.

“It feeds into (the importance of) leadership, and having other people in the community want to make a difference,” Ulm said.

“One individual isn’t going to change it all, but if someone can create more leaders, that’s where it can make exponential change.”