Last month, sophomore Kai Chen and junior Ava Anderson co-founded a chapter of the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society after Chen was nominated a candidate by the national organization to help raise awareness and funds for blood cancer research.
“LLS was originally a program that I’d always seen myself getting involved in,” said Chen, co-founder of Midtown Knights for the Fight. “A lot of my friends who were already in the position and had already become candidates for LLS did it, so I asked them to nominate me and then I got nominated and got the position.”
Although not affiliated with Midtown, this chapter is created and run by Midtown students. For Midtown, the chapter has a specific goal it aims to achieve as it follows one of the specific LLS pillars.
“Obviously, our overall goal is to create a world without blood cancers, but for Midtown, specifically, our goal is to raise $50,000, and that will all be going towards patient care and education, which is the research pillar we chose,” Chen said.
With raising money, Anderson says every little bit, no matter how small, helps the cause.
“Our goal is to work as hard as we can to raise money for all the patients and families going through this tough time,” Anderson said. “We like to think that every little bit helps, even if it’s just awareness. Anything to draw attention to the people surviving this and to give them support.”
As this is the beginning of the chapter at Midtown, the co-founders have mostly focused on planning fundraising ideas and events.
“We have a bunch of different fundraising ideas, and we’ve also done a bunch of corporate sponsorships with our team members, so it’s usually personal connections that we’ve reached out to,” Chen said. “We’re also partnering with local businesses.”
Aside from planning, the chapter has begun to start raising money and having meetings.
“We’ve raised a bunch of money just typically from personal donations,” Chen said. “We’ve started planning lots of different things, and we’ve also started sponsorship and corporate partnership meetings.”
Chen and Anderson have also been working on advertising the new chapter to the school through several methods, such as social media.
“We’ve definitely really advertised our program to the entire school, and we’ve sent out a newsletter that has gone to many teachers and students,” Chen said. “We also have worked really hard to spread the word about promoting it on social media and other stuff like that.”
Senior Luca Geisler-Norsing is a member of the LLS chapter and is hoping by helping with this local chapter to not only raise money, but inform people about Leukemia and Lymphoma blood cancers.
“I am excited to raise as much money as I can for the cause, and also hopefully educate people,” Geisler-Norsing said. “Getting involved in this chapter and bringing such a large organization down to a more local level will hopefully allow more people to get involved.”
Anderson said she hopes that advertising, with help from social media, will bring more attention to the cause.
“We have been posting on social media, and reaching out to people, which hopefully makes everyone more aware of the families going through this,” Anderson said.
Through this advertising, Chen said the LLS chapter aims to get more students and teachers involved to join the fight against blood cancer.
“Students and faculty members get involved by donating or telling their students about it, and obviously by participating in LLS events and other stuff like that,” Chen said. “Also, just becoming more knowledgeable about the program and the students who are in it.”
Overall, Chen hopes that the chapter will not only help gain awareness, but also inspire other students and faculty at Midtown to support an important cause
“This cause helps millions around the world, but beyond that, it is encouraging the Midtown community to become passionate about something that’s bigger than them,” Chen said. “Donating to LLS is funding the future and that is why I would encourage any donation.”
