Local School Finishes First in Leukemia Fundraising Drive

BETHESDA, MD - For the fourth straight year, Walt Whitman High School has taken first place among high schools in the Washington area in raising funds to cure leukemia and related diseases.

Students at Walt Whitman raised $51,566.29 in February and March in the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society’s Student Series High School Challenge program (Pennies For Patients), according to the society's National Capital Area Chapter. Besides Whitman, the challenge program involved 10 other high schools in the Washington area, including Maryland, the District and Northern Virginia, and it raised more than $130,000 for cancer research.

Coming in second this year was Walter Johnson High School in North Bethesda, which raised $35,296, the National Capital Area Chapter announced.

The mission of the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society (LLS) is to cure leukemia, lymphoma, Hodgkin’s disease and myeloma, and improve the quality of life of patients and their families. LLS funds blood cancer research around the world and provides free information and support services. To learn more, please click here or contact the Information Resource Center at (800) 955-4572, Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.

The LLS Student Series is a service learning, character education and philanthropy program where students help children and adults in their fight against blood cancers like leukemia. More than 14.5 million students and 850,000 educators in 28,000 schools across the U.S. participate annually. Since its beginning, students have raised more than $288 million for the LLS.

Carolyn Hoover, the student leader of Walt Whitman High School’s Student Series, attributed the school’s success this year to an increased commitment to the mission and keeping the ultimate goal in the forefront - finding cures, according to an LLS statement.

"Our community has personally been affected by cancer many times, and it fills me with hope to think that through the research we are funding, no more people will be added to the list," Hoover said. "Whitman will always believe in LLS and support their mission to find cures."

LLS announced that selected students at Walt Whitman will be awarded with a summer internship at Pepco’s headquarters in the District. The student or students will assist the power company's Corporate Citizenship and Social Responsibility Department.

To learn more about the 2016 High School Challenge, please click here.

Follow the LLS National Capital Area Chapter on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram @LLSNatCap.