[Please note: The first text you'll see here is a copy of our original post, which describes what we're up to with this fundraising campaign. We figured we'd do that since the website template we're using is a bit clunky and automatically displays our oldest content at the very bottom. Thanks for bearing with us!]

A SPECIAL PROJECT

First of all, a huge THANK YOU for even getting this far! We know that everyone has a million things going on, tons of messages to check, etc. etc. So we are grateful for even a few moments of your time.

We are the Cancer Cancelers: Evan Clausen, Noah Clausen, & Lily Daane. We're San Luis Obispo High School students who all have a personal connection to the fight against cancer, and we're working with the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society to raise awareness and funds to help CANCEL blood cancer for good.

What is the Students of the Year (SOY) program?

Glad you asked! It's a friendly competition that allows high school students from around the county to compete in teams of 2-3 to outraise each other during the period of February 12 - April 3. We have a short and sweet 7-week window of time to get the word out about the great progress LLS is making in research, education, and financial assistance & support for impacted families.

We're motivated to do this important work because our own families have been directly impacted. Evan and Noah lost their Uncle John -- well before they were ever born -- to leukemia when he was 16 years old. (Because Evan is 17, Lily is 16, and Noah is 15, this really hits home for us.) Lily lost her grandpa to cancer, and while his own illness wasn't a blood cancer, she was inspired to hear about the advances in blood cancer research and therapies that are benefitting ALL types of cancer treatment.

We'll be adding facts and statistics about the fight and the changing face of blood cancers over the next few weeks and throughout the campaign. But if you have questions about any of it, please reach out to us! We have learned so much and are happy to share information about LLS, its programs, or the SOY campaign. Of course, you can also check out www.lls.org anytime.

And if you are already interested in supporting our efforts, you can help in one (or more!) of the following ways: You can easily make a financial contribution right from this page; you can schedule a meeting with us (anytime) so that we can present to you about our efforts and brainstorm how your business might get involved; or you can let us know if you have something to donate for the Grand Finale auction event on April 3. All are GREAT ways to help, and all are tax deductible (the LLS Tax ID # is 13-5644916). You can even just let us know if you have ideas about other people and businesses we should approach. It takes a village, and we're here for it!

From our families and on behalf of blood cancer patients everywhere, THANK YOU for your support.

Evan (evan.clausen@yahoo.com), Lily (lilbeansdaane@gmail.com) & Noah (noah.clausen42@gmail.com)

P.S. If you scroll through our site, you can read more about Evan and Noah's Uncle John...

NOW, FOR OUR CAMPAIGN UPDATES (MOST RECENT TO OLDEST!):

JUNE 15, 2020

As we wrap up our campaign and head for the (now virtual!) grand finale event, we want to thank everyone who has donated so far and helped us get to where we are so far in our efforts to help fight blood cancer. We've raised more than $19,000 to date!!

With the move to an online event, the good news is that you are all invited to participate in the finale on June 25 at 6pm. It's a zoom event that you can join from home that will still include an auction component.

- To preview the event and see a list of auction items, just click slosoy2020.givesmart.com.

- To register for the event (or for advance bidding beginning on Monday, 6/22), text soyslo2020 to 76278.

IMPORTANT: YOU CAN BID ON ITEMS UP TO 72 HOURS IN ADVANCE, SO BE SURE TO REGISTER EARLY IF YOU'RE INTERESTED IN PARTICIPATING!

We understand that this is an unusual way to wrap things up, but we're excited to bring in some final contributions to this important campaign we've been working on since the fall. Thank you again for all of your support -- we could not have done it without you!

- Evan, Noah & Lily

MARCH 30, 2020
Well, things have obviously changed for us, as they have for everyone. Our fundraising campaign has taken a back seat to learning how to live at home 24/7 and transitioning to online school. It is not ideal, but we are all doing fine and looking at the bright side whenever we can. (For instance, Evan and Noah appreciate that their mom and sister like to cook and bake and now have the time to do lots of both!)

In terms of our LLS campaign, here are a few specific updates:

- We had to suspend our in-person fundraising, including a special event we'd planned with Kreuzberg in SLO. (We also had to drastically downsize and change the format of our poker fundraiser on 3/15.) At this point, we've raised about $18,000 for LLS, which is GREAT. But we want to do more, even with these unfortunate cancelations.

- The grand finale auction event has been moved to June 25 at 6pm. It'll still be at Flying Caballos in SLO, and it will still include the great silent and live auctions we've been working on for months!

- We can now collect donations through the new campaign end date of June 25th (instead of the original April 3 end date). While we've already worked hard to secure donations from our own networks of family and friends -- and they have stepped up in a BIG way! -- we're happy to do even more outreach and work on new possible opportunities. So if you know of anyone with a personal connection to blood cancer (or anyone else who may be interested in helping/supporting), please let us know. We understand that it is an uncertain and crazy time for everyone, and charitable contributions are needed elsewhere, too. But we want to do our best for LLS, and any help offered will always be appreciated.

THANK YOU!

As of today, we're nine days into our seven-week campaign, and the support so far has been AWESOME! We've secured some important business sponsorships (huge thank yous to MindBody, The Avenue, and Hal Sweasey!), and we've received dozens of individual donations from friends and family through this website and through the good old fashioned mail (too many to thank here right now*, but we're sending handwritten thank yous every day! And we'll list everyone soon!). We've also received some sweet auction items that will be a part the grand finale event on April 3 (thanks to Hotel SLO, Amblin Partners/Dreamworks Pictures, UNITE Haircare, Central Coast 401k, Optimum Bait Co., Finney's Crafthouse, Luna Red restaurant, and Smith Volvo, among others!). We've set a very ambitious goal of $30,000 for our final fundraising total, and based on direct contributions and business sponsorships, we're already 30% of the way there!!!! BUT... We know that the hard work comes now, after the initial response to our campaign kickoff. Now we're rolling up our sleeves and seeing what else we can do to rally support.

One of the things we've decided to do is hold a poker fundraiser, and Central Coast Brewing has come through in a really big way. CCB will be hosting our fundraiser event on Sunday, March 15, and we've launched a separate website to share info about the event and to take registrations. To check out all of the details, head over to poker2cure.org right now. :)

So thanks for everyone's help so far, and we look forward to sharing more updates soon!

- Evan, Noah & Lil (& Alek)

*Okay, we're naming one individual donor here, because she's so awesome and happens to have been the fifth grade teacher for each of us and she lives all the way up in Seattle now: Mrs. Serafin. Thanks, Mrs. Serafin! :)

FEBRUARY 12, 2020

Tonight was the official campaign kickoff, where we met all of the other teams and got to hear from Tara Syslo, whose kids Dylan and Teagan are leukemia (Dylan) and lymphoma (Teagan) survivors. Dylan and Teagan were there, too, and are a huge inspiration for our on-going efforts.

And apparently our efforts are already paying off! We laid enough groundwork during the planning stages of the campaign to earn status as Hall of Fame qualifiers! We're not entirely sure what we did that got us that recognition, but we'll take it. :) We're ready to build big on that planning.

Here are a few quick pics from the kickoff event. You also get a look at our strong supporting player, Alek. He's helping our team and (like Noah) rolled straight to the event from baseball practice.

[If this is your first visit to our page, be sure to scroll down to the first post to read about what we're up to!]

Claire is one tough kid who beat lymphoma and is an inspiration to our team as well as others. She's a local hero and was a big part of kicking off the SOY fundraising and awareness program in San Luis Obispo last year. Take a minute to meet her through this brief video -- it'll give you an idea of the kinds of patients we're working hard to support.

[If this is your first visit, be sure to scroll down to the bottom and read our first post!]

As we mentioned in our first post, Evan and Noah are participating in this campaign in honor of their late uncle, John Michael Cutler, and Lily is honoring her grandpa.

We thought we'd share a little bit more about these special people and why they inspire our efforts today. Today we're going to let you know a bit about Uncle John.

John was first diagnosed with leukemia at five years old, and after aggressive treatment spent more than eight years in remission. While he was technically cancer-free during the remission period, the road was not always comfortable or easy -- in large part because chemotherapy and other medication often attacked the cancer but brought painful and lasting side effects.

Despite this, John maintained a wicked sense of humor and was an incredible friend to those he cared about most. To this day, his closest childhood friends keep in touch with John's parents (our grandparents) and often share hilarious stories of the trouble he would stir up. Even after he was diagnosed again in 8th grade, he would attend school whenever he was well enough and served as the president of his junior high. He even proudly got his driver's license when he turned 16!

Our Uncle Matt (aka Uncle Tito, our mom's other brother) and Aunt Cindy named our first cousin John Michael Cutler in honor of the original John. Our cousin is seven now, and he's one of our favorite people. While he lives in the Bay Area and we don't get to see him as often as we'd like, when we're together we have a great time playing Mario Kart and teaching him bad habits and inappropriate phrases (don't tell his mom!). We also want to point out that Uncle Tito and Aunt Cindy gave us another cousin as well, and we love John's little brother Ryan very much, too. :)

Family is really important to us and we're grateful that even though we didn't get to meet our Uncle John, we have his namesake and the rest of our extended family in our lives. And we'll work hard to raise funds and awareness for LLS in the hope that other kids will get to meet their uncles and aunts and brothers and sisters and those who might otherwise be lost to blood cancer.

- Evan & Noah

Here's a photo of our Uncle John:

And one of John and his best friend, Ian:

And here's a photo of us carrying on the rabble-rousing with our sister and cousins:

And finally, here's a pic of Noah carrying on Uncle John's sports-loving tradition and wearing John's prized Chicago Bulls jacket:

[If this is your first visit to our site, be sure to scroll down to the bottom for our original post that explains why we're here!]

LEARNING TO PITCH

One of the side benefits of participaing in LLS's SOY campaign is that it gives us great experience making presentations to local businesses. While the campaign doesn't officially kick off until February 12, we've been able to get in some important practice with friendly audiences at companies like McMillen Study Guides/Masterfully and California West Real Estate Management.

If you are interested in scheduling a time for us to come present to you, let us know. We're in high school full-time, but we can be available at lunchtime, in the late afternoon, or even on the weekend. We're also able to email you our slides and then call to walk you through them.

And a BIG thanks to Gabbi Chaves Banducci at California West for committing to donate some exciting auction items and also attend our finale event. She and her company rock!

[If this is your first time visiting our site, you can scroll down to see our first post, which will explain what we're up to]

GETTING READY

For a couple of months now, we've been working hard laying the groundwork for our fundraising and awareness campaign. We've been practicing our pitch, reaching out to some local businesses, and pulling together addresses for the letter we've drafted to our family and friends. We've also gotten more than a couple of hand cramps addressing the red envelopes that will accompany those letters, but we'll gladly endure that if it leads to even one donation to help in the fight! 

If you know of anyone who might be interested in supporting the Cancer Cancelers in our fundraising, or of someone who might want to learn more about the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society's work in the field, we'd love to know. You can reach us via email at:

evan.clausen@yahoo.com (Evan)
noah.clausen42@gmail.com (Noah)
lilbeansdaane@gmail.com (Lily)

And for a peek behind the scenes, here is Evan working on his envelopes:

A SPECIAL PROJECT

First of all, a huge THANK YOU for even getting this far! We know that everyone has a million things going on, tons of messages to check, etc. etc. So we are grateful for even a few moments of your time.

We are the Cancer Cancelers: Evan Clausen, Noah Clausen, & Lily Daane. We're San Luis Obispo High School students who all have a personal connection to the fight against cancer, and we're working with the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society's 2020 Students of the Year program to raise awareness and funds to help CANCEL blood cancer for good.

What is the Students of the Year (SOY) program?

Glad you asked! It's a friendly competition that allows high school students from around the county to compete in teams of 2-3 to outraise each other during the period of February 12 - April 3. We have a short and sweet 7-week window of time to get the word out about the great progress LLS is making in research, education, and financial assistance & support for impacted families.

We're motivated to do this important work because our own families have been directly impacted. Evan and Noah lost their Uncle John -- well before they were ever born -- to leukemia when he was 16 years old. (Because Evan is 17, Lily is 16, and Noah is 15, this really hits home for us.) Lily lost her grandpa to cancer, and while his own illness wasn't a blood cancer, she was inspired to hear about the advances in blood cancer research and therapies that are benefitting ALL types of cancer treatment.

We'll be adding facts and statistics about the fight and the changing face of blood cancers over the next few weeks and throughout the campaign. But if you have questions about any of it, please reach out to us! We have learned so much and are happy to share information about LLS, its programs, or the SOY campaign. Of course, you can also check out www.lls.org anytime.

And if you are already interested in supporting our efforts, you can help in one (or more!) of the following ways: You can easily make a financial contribution right from this page (beginning February 12); you can schedule a meeting with us (anytime) so that we can present to you about our efforts and brainstorm how your business might get involved; or you can let us know if you have something to donate for the Grand Finale auction event on April 3. All are GREAT ways to help, and all are tax deductible (the LLS Tax ID # is 13-5644916). You can even just let us know if you have ideas about other people and businesses we should approach. It takes a village, and we're here for it!

From our families and on behalf of blood cancer patients everywhere, THANK YOU for your support.

Evan (evan.clausen@yahoo.com), Lily (lilbeansdaane@gmail.com) & Noah (noah.clausen42@gmail.com)