Dear Friends and Family,

I am honored to announce that I will be running as a Student of the Year candidate for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society alongside my good friend Carli Mendelow. Together, we are leading Bay High’s Team Overcome during the 2021 campaign. 

Students of the Year is a seven-week fundraising competition for high school students. It is a chance for students to raise money in hopes of finding a cure for patients with blood cancer. Last year, our team raised $164,000 and the Northeast Ohio teams combined to collect over $800,000. We were able to create a tremendous impact last campaign, and this year we want to expound upon this success. The competition begins on January 7 and ends on February 27, 2021. My team is determined to reach our goal of $100,000 to move one step closer to finding a cure for this crippling disease. 

For more than 68 years, the mission of LLS has been to cure leukemia, lymphoma, Hodgkin’s disease, and myeloma, and improve the quality of life for patients and their families. LLS has invested $1.3 billion into research since 1949. Since then, survival rates for blood cancer have quadrupled. This research is even leading to treatment advances for other cancers. Yet despite these advances, blood cancer is still devastating to the thousands of patients diagnosed each year. More than 33% of blood cancer patients do not survive more than 5 years after diagnosis.

Like many of you, I have witnessed blood cancer ravage nearly every facet of life. I have seen it cripple families, both within my community and throughout the country. I have seen it ruin bright futures. I have seen it end all sense of normalcy in the highschool experiences of my friends. This is my chance to contribute to the fight against blood cancer, and I humbly ask for your donation. Despite the massive challenges of COVID-19, my team and I are determined to overcome these barriers and become the generation that cures leukemia and lymphoma. 

To support our efforts, you can donate online by visiting my donation page. Or, if you wish to donate through the mail please make your check payable to the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society and send it to 495 Bracken Way, Bay Village, Ohio, 44140. Make sure to print our team name, “Team Overcome” in the memo section. *Your donations are tax deductible.

To learn more about The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society and other ways to support their efforts, visit www.LLS.org.

Yours in mission,

Cooper Lyons

Team Overcome