Jan. 22 to Mar. 12 is a seven-week time period that seems irrelevant but is the short duration that high school students were able to raise $3.6 million for cancer research, breaking a national record. 

That window of time is the annual Leukemia and Lymphoma Society’s (LLS) Students of the Year Campaign for the DC Metro area. During this time, candidates of the campaign compete to raise as much awareness and money as they can for their common cause of curing blood cancers. The team that raises the most money is awarded the title “Students of the Year” at the LLS’ closing event called the “Grand Finale.” LLS is the world’s largest voluntary health organization dedicated to funding blood cancer research and providing education and patient services. Since 1949, LLS has raised $1.3 billion in groundbreaking research to find cures and ensure patients can access the life-saving treatment they need. 

At this school, two teams participated in the campaign, one of which I was a part of. My team, The Wootton Warriors, led by sophomores Kelly Ren, Lizzie Misovec and myself, hustled to reach a goal of fifty thousand dollars. “It was definitely hard to see such a high number and take on the huge responsibility of leading a team through an important and real life experience,” Ren said. 

In order to accomplish such a hefty goal, LLS encouraged teams to focus on three main fundraising techniques; “personal asks,” corporate sponsorships and fundraiser events. On my team, we made sure each of the 11 team members created a contact list of at least 50 people prior to the start of the campaign. “Each person had to send out a weekly mass email to their contact list explaining their mission, updating their family and friends on the progress of the campaign and include their personal fundraising link to give their contacts the opportunity to donate and share the link,” my co-captain, Misovec said. 

Personal asks were accomplished not only through email, but also through letter writing, texting, calling and social media posts. One of the features LLS has during the campaign to motivate teams to come up with creative ways to raise money is the “Letter Writing Campaign.” Teams could complete and send 150 handwritten letters to earn prize money to add to their funds. 

Misovec inspired me and our other co-captain,  Ren, to take on the responsibility of participating as well. “I got involved because a friend of mine had participated in the past and they recommended it to me. I saw the amount of people that were affected by blood cancers and the impact LLS has made in the past and it motivated me to want to be a part of the change.” Misovec said.

Juniors Brooke Pitt and Josie Starr also captained an LLS team called Cheering Against Cancer. “I joined in honor of my grandma who passed away from cancer,” Pitt said. 

Pitt and Starr agreed that the campaign was a great way to get involved with something bigger than themselves and be able to be part of making a real difference. Not only is the campaign a way to be part of a bigger change, but it is also a way high schoolers are introduced to real life and mature experiences. “I had to speak with people in high positions at companies to present corporate sponsorship packages, as well as plan fundraisers at businesses such as Chipotle,” Ren said. 

Team Cheering Against Cancer also fundraised through reaching out to people and businesses they knew by writing emails, sending text messages and through social media. “The campaign taught me how to be a leader and showed me what I am really capable of accomplishing,” Pitt said.