I’m so psyched to share that I was nominated for The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society’s (LLS) 2020 Students of the Year campaign!

Students of the Year is a 7-week philanthropic leadership development program that gives high school students the resources and opportunity to take charge of a major project and impact their community in a huge way! Fundraising begins January 18th and ends March 8th. My team and I set an ambitious goal to raise $50,000 for LLS. We have an amazing team, an amazing mission, and some exciting events coming up.

Everyone has a connection to cancer.

Every person I’ve talked with has known someone or has battled themselves with cancer. That’s why the fight my team and I are on is so important. We are fighting for a world where a cancer diagnosis isn’t the worst possible scenario.

Why The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society?

Why would I spend a good chunk of my senior year fundraising for this non-profit? Impact. That’s why! Founded in 1949 by a couple who lost their son to leukemia, LLS has raised around $1.3 billion to further blood cancer treatments.

As part of our advanced leadership class, I had the opportunity to meet with a representative from LLS who told our class a little bit about the organization and what it does for cancer research and individual patients in need of care.

LLS has funded in some way nearly 1 in 4 of all cancer treatments.

That’s an insane amount. LLS’s mission is to end leukemia, lymphoma, Hodgkin’s disease, and myeloma. This has helped them to press forward the most cutting edge blood cancer research, like CAR-T Cell therapy which has been approved for lymphoma and is currently being tested for everything from mesothelioma to heart failure. After learning what an amazing mission LLS has, how could I say no when I was nominated?

What can you do to help end cancer? Help our team reach our goal of raising $50,000! Make a donation here at our team's fundraising page! 

With heartfelt gratitude,
Penelope Olheiser & Team Let Love Shine