Carson Rogers spent Wednesday afternoon chunking a basketball at the faces of Vidalia Upper Elementary fifth-graders.

And while the 3-year-old goofed off with his big brother Blake’s friends, Blake was busy. Busy shooting hoops, that is.

Blake, 10, raised $102 in sponsorships and donations for Hoops for Heart, a school fundraiser for the American Heart Association.

Carson was oblivious to the significance.

The youngest of three in the Rogers family, Carson was born with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, or an enlarged heart. The problem is common in older adults with a history of high blood pressure, but not in newborns.

Carson, who also has cerebral palsy, takes medicine daily and has been told by doctors he won’t be able to play sports or be as active as other children.

But that’s not stopping him.

“As well as he’s doing, we feel like his body will tell him what he can’t do,” his mother Robin Rogers said. “He keeps up with (his brother and sister). He does whatever they do.”

That was obvious Wednesday.

Heart association fundraisers are a family affair for the Rogers clan. Mom and dad, Carroll, take off work and the children leave school.

Carson traded his preschool class at Vidalia Lower for running laps around the big kids in the Upper’s gym.

“Anytime there’s something they can participate in, it’s something we do,” Robin said.

“They really like to raise money for things like that. Any way they can help him, they do.”

In addition to collecting sponsorships for his hoops time, Blake and his sister Madison sold handcrafted Christmas ornaments. Overall, VUES raised $3,600 this year through Hoops for Heart.