Dear family and friends, 

I have been given the opportunity to help a cause that I am truly passionate about. Each Year the Leukemia and Lymphoma society (LLS) runs a campaign to raise money for families in need and I am honored to be a part of this seven week campaign as a candidate. The campaign kicks off Feb. 5^th and will end on March 27^th where they will announce the winner. During those 7 weeks, every dollar I raise is one vote for me. My goal is to raise $50k in just those 7 short weeks.

I decided to be a part of student of the year because of the many positive things within the organization; such as helping those with blood cancer and other types of cancers. People of all ages in my own family have had cancers of all types, most notably my cousin JJ, as well as this campaigns local Boy of the Year. He’s been fighting blood cancer for a couple of years.  It’s made him so tired and fragile that he couldn’t even come to a gathering for me when I first signed on to the campaign.  My goal then is to raise money to help JJ and others who have the same illness so they might not suffer as much as so many do now. 

Most of the money raised for LLS this year will be going towards patients with blood cancer, but some of the money also goes towards research that creates medication which eventually goes on to help with other cancers like brain cancer which my cousin Tilly had. LLS stands on three main pillars which support the organization and make it a reliable non-profit. These pillars are; research for new medicines and treatments, easy access to information and assistance (financial and emotional), and advocacy of more than 100,000 volunteers to benefit patients. Thanks to this organization, survival rates of patients who have cancer have increased more than 4 times since the 1960’s and 46 out of the 53 FDA approved treatments since 2017 have been funded by LLS. Also know that more than 77% of the money raised goes towards those three pillars mentioned, which is much higher than most non-profits.

Here’s how you can help, you can donate directly to this campaign by sending a check made out to LLS, send to 1800 30^th Street Fourth Floor Bakersfield CA 93301. Please include my name in the memo section of the check. You can also donate online by going to my fundraising website (https://events.lls.org/cca/bfdsoy20/ghooper). If you want to do more, you can by sharing this information and website to other family and friends. The families and patients who are a part of LLS would thank you deeply. I think that its so special too that you know that the money you donate is helping local cancer patients and research to help fight against cancer. If there are any questions that you have regarding the campaign or LLS you can contact me through email, gmancrewcreator@outlook.com.

Thank you so very much for taking the time to read this and let’s give others a brighter future.

Sincerely,

Garrett Hooper