Shawnee High School juniors Daniel Nugent and Rex Jacobs are on a mission to raise awareness of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma and other blood cancers.
They lead a team of nine other sophomores and juniors from Shawnee as part of the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society’s (LLS) 2024 Student Visionaries of the Year campaign, which began on Jan. 18 and runs through March 9.
As Team Cancer Crushers, the group – including James DiBlasi, Madeline Dubler,
Eden Ehle, Norah Jebwadny, Jack McKenna, Tommy Nickles, Anthony Orphanos,
Sean Sipera, and Claire Volinski – has been working to raise the most funds possible for the cause.
Students across the country are competing to see who can raise the most funds and awareness for LLS’s mission to cure blood cancers.
“We decided to join the Student Visionaries of the Year campaign after Daniel’s uncle
received a diagnosis of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma,” Jacobs explained. “This sparked something in us to find a way to help fight this debilitating disease. We knew the LLS would be a worthy cause to commit our time and effort to if it meant we could help so many people that are in the same situation as Daniel’s uncle.”
The Cancer Crushers have already joined with others for recent fundraisers:
- Partnered with the Shawnee High girls basketball team, the Interact Club and Cooking with a Cause Club to host an LLS awareness night at the school team’s basketball game on Feb. 1, just before World Cancer Day on Feb. 4
- Hosted a Dine & Donate at Tacos El Tio on Feb. 15
- Partnered with Phillies broadcaster and blood cancer survivor Gregg Murphy in a 60-second informational video and acquired a donated baseball signed by Bryce Harper to be auctioned off on CharityBuzz
- Hosted another Dine & Donate at Riviera Pizza on Stokes on Feb. 18
- Coordinated an extensive letter-writing and email marketing campaign and met with several local business owners for sponsorships.
Upcoming events include “A Concert for Cancer” featuring local musicians on Friday, March 8, from 7 to 9 p.m. at Medford’s Studio 67, 67 North Main St. For more information, visit https://events.lls.org/snj/svoysouthnj24/tcancercru
