Students of the Year is a 7 week campaign, lead by high school students ( that'd be me) to raise money for blood cancer research through the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. The campaign kicks off on January 23, 2021 and lasts until May 13, 2021. During those 7 weeks,  teams of high school students ask anyone and everyone they know to help them reach their goals and advocate for safer, less invasive, more effective cancer treatments. Now you are one of the anyone and everyone that I know, and I'm asking for you help. My goal with working on this campaign is to create a world where treatment options are given before life expectancies, where the treatment that is saving your life doesn’t cause health risks later on, and a world where blood cancer, or cancer in general, doesn't get to tear families apart. 

     What do my donations go to? What does the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society even do?  First off your donations go into the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, and from there some prety amazing things happen with those funds. The first thing that your donations fund is cancer research. The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society is currently funding research at nearly 100 medical insitutions globally, with 250 research projects being supported at any given time. 250 projects of potential treatments and cures, that could develop into treatments for solid tumor cancers such as breast cancer as other projects funded by LLs have. Since 1949 the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society has invested nearly $1.3 billion into cancer research. 

      Secondly your donations go into the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society's support network. LLS provides specialists to answer any questions or inquires from patients or caregivers of blood cancer patients. Families are not alone in navigating the confusing world of treatments and options. LLS also helps provide financial assistance, and since 2007 LLS has provided more than $431 million in co-pay assistance. Finally, one of the coolest things LLS does in my opinion is their advocacy within the government system. Around 100,000 volunteers are advocating for changes such as the laws in 43 states to provide fair coverage of cancer treatment in a pill form. A pill form, which protects vulnerable cancer patiences from risking contracting the virus  by allowing them to take treatment within their own homes. 

    One small donation goes into making all of these big operations possible. Last year the Students of the Year teams within the DC area set a new national record for how much money students could raise within 7 weeks. A bunch of teenagers raised 2.7 million dollars with the help of people like you. Donations of $5 or $20 added up into $2.7 million towards blood cancer research. Times are different this year,  life in general is different, but for nearly 1.4 million Americans who are living with or in remission of blood cancer life is still a terrifying battle. I hope you'll join my campaign in an effort to help make life a little less terrifying for blood cancer patiences around the world. 

Hi, I'm Katrina. I am a senior at South County High School, my favorite classes are history and math, I was (am) a member of the SOCO Marching Band and drumline, and many of you may know these things about me, or have met me through these activites. Some things you may not know about me are I love hiking, I am slowly learning how to cook and bake, nothing makes me happier than being outside (more specifically working outside), I'm struggleing to get my tiny aloe vera plant to grow as big as my grandmothers, and I really hate cancer.  I really, very much so, hate cancer. Another thing you may not know about me: I lost both my grandfather and my great Uncle David to blood cancer. 

My first loss I didn't get a chance to feel until recently. My Grandpa Best, or as I probably would have called him, Big Papaw,  passed away before I was born to Multiple Myeloma. For years, all I knew was I got my middle name of Dawn from him, he would have loved me,  and that he was a hard worker.  Throught the years I've heard more stories than I could ever remember, about how grandpa told my uncles how to build the bridge that crosses the creek, he worked at a corn processing factory for most of his adult life, how my grandma and him met on a blind date because he had a car and her friends wanted to go to a state park with their boyfriends, that he was on the company bowling team, that he hated when anyone touched his feet, and honestly I could continue on about how in love my grandmother is with him to this day. Suddenly all those little stories combined into the person I never got to meet. The person I will never get to hug, who never got to even hear my name, who I can never ask to come to my graduation if it's possible. 

( My beautiful grandmother and I. We were watching tv and talking about the engagements on the show. She looked at me and said 'Once I found him, and I was done'. )

My second loss I felt a lot sooner. My Great Uncle David, but everyone called him Uncle David. He was the sweetest man I have ever met to this day, an honest farmer his whole life, married to one of the most lovable women, and also a very hard worker. He had cattle, and every single cow had a name, and he knew every single cows name. He took the place of a grandfather, as both of mine had passed before I could meet them, and my memories of him are all looking up at him and running around the farm. Feeding the cows was the only time I ever remember him raising his voice. I was young, maybe 5 or 6, and he yelled at me to stay away from the cows so I wouldn't get trampled underneath their hooves. Riding on the tractor while we baled hay, moving the bales up into the storage bin, playing around in a grain silo full of corn. I wish that I had more that I remember. I do remember hearing the diagnoses, as well as the life expectancy; I was 10. Acute Myeloid Leukemia. 3 to 4 months.  Only 3 to 4 months left, everytime I saw him I just worried it would the last time. Our Christmas was different that year, our New Years, everything was different. This strong, loving, kind man began showing the effects of chemotherapy, the wear of cancer treatment. Uncle David passed away January 18, about 4 am, from pnemonia and his weakened immune system. 

( I like to think this picture really captures the spirit of my cousins and I. Uncle David and Aunt Sandy always took our craziness with a laugh)

So I really hate cancer. I hate cancer so much because they never got to come to a concert and hear me play, or teach me how to work with my hands. I hate cancer because sometimes you just really want a hug from your grandpa. But hating something is useless. Hating how vicious blood cancer was wasn't going to invent safer treatments, with fewer long lasting imapacts. Then I got to high school and my section leader for band did this insane thing- she raised money for blood cancer research as a high school student. I knew as soon as I heard, I wanted to do it, needed to do it. Then last year, Lauren Amparo recruited me to be apart of Harmonizing for a Cure, and so the journey began.