Teaming up to fight cancer

A group of East Meadow High School students will not let anything stop them from raising money for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. On Feb. 2, their team, dubbed Funding the Cure, kicked off an effort to raise $12,000 over seven weeks for people battling blood cancers.

The three juniors leading the group, Ryan Monahan, Andrew Ignatiou and Benjamin Krieger, are candidates for the LLS Student Visionaries of the Year campaign. Their high school team has more than 30 students members, and is part of the Long Island Chapter of the society, which pits them against roughly 20 other teams.

Student Visionaries of the Year is a philanthropic leadership development program for high school students. During the campaign, students learn what it’s like to grow their entrepreneurial, marketing, managerial and organizational skills.

The campaign builds to a grand finale on March 23. All funds raised will benefit the LLS mission, — to find a cure for leukemia, lymphoma, Hodgkin’s disease, and myeloma, and to improve the quality of life of patients and their families.

The team specifically chose to donate their money to the patient support sector of the mission.

The three students have their reasons as to why they joined the effort and decided to lead their team. Ignatiou, for example, joined to honor his uncle.

“I joined this year’s campaign in memory of my uncle George Ignatiou,” Ignatiou said. “In 1990, he passed away after a battle with non-Hodgkins lymphoma. While I didn’t get the chance to meet him, I saw what his loss did to my family, and I don’t want any other family to lose someone to cancer.”

To get the ball rolling, the team organized fundraisers selling squares for the Super Bowl, selling candy bars, and collecting change.

“There’s not a certain amount of fundraisers we need to do, but it’s about getting involved,” Monahan said. “How much you do, how much you put in, is what you get out of it.”

The team has already raised over $2,000.

They will host a “Taco Tuesday” night fundraiser at the East Meadow Chipotle at 2312 Hempstead Turnpike on March 7 from 4 to 8 p.m. They will also collaborate with John F. Kennedy High School seniors from Bellmore, Beverly Kleinman and Alison Wohlstetter. There will be a bingo fundraiser at the North Merrick firehouse at 2095 Camp Ave., in Merrick on March 4 at 7 p.m.

The East Meadow students were first introduced to Kleinman and Wohlstetter at an LLS event for all of the teams in November. They decided to collaborate because the girls’ team — “Good Vibes Save Lives” — is only composed of a few members. Kleinman has been a candidate for the student visionary campaign for the past three years.

“It’s about helping each other and our towns are so close,” Monahan said. “It allows us to kind of cooperate there and it’s about raising as much money as you can, so the more people, the better.”

Ignatiou said that the tips that the girls have given them have helped them to reach out to businesses to secure sponsors, manage their social media presence, and stay organized.

“Even in our biggest year we had maybe 17 members,” Wohlstetter said. “It’s really exciting to see how many people really want to contribute to this type of fundraising, and I’m really excited to work with them to figure it out.”

For Wohlstetter and Kleinman, it’s all about community activities. They’ve done bake sales, Zumba classes, art classes and other fundraisers. So far they’ve raised over $800. Over the years their efforts have generated over $20,000.

“Beverly’s been involved with the campaign way longer than us so it’s all about helping each other and giving ideas,” Monahan said. “It’s a like a mentorship.”

Although the campaign journey has just started, the teams have definitely learned valuable skills.

“Public speaking is a very important trait,” Krieger said. “We went to a carnival at Eisenhower Park and there was businesses there and I would get really nervous to speak to people because it’s tough, but Beverly taught us that we just have to accept the “no.”

You should always ask, because if you don’t, you won’t know what they would’ve said.”

Leadership, organizational skills, and confidence are what the students needed most in order to run a successful campaign.

“The best part about it,” Ignatiou said, “is that we have the opportunity to make an impact on a patient’s life and be one step closer to a cancer-free world.”