At EMHS, raising funds to crush cancer

The Crushing Cancer Cells team, a group of about 38 students from East Meadow High School, has been raising money since Feb. 3 for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. The team’s leaders, Nicole Gao, Sumaiya Chowdhury and Maisha Sayeem, have been accepted as candidates for the LLS 2022 Students of Year campaign.

The three juniors became involved with LLS in 2019 when they were freshmen. This year, the goal is to raise money in the seven weeks ending  March 24. The candidates that raise the most become the Students of the Year for their chapter. The girls’ team is part of the Long Island Chapter which means they are up against roughly 30 other teams.

Students of the Year is a philanthropic leadership development program for high school students. During the campaign, participants foster professional skills such as entrepreneurship, marketing, and project management. The campaign culminates with the grand finale celebration on March 24. The 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.

“We decided that we really wanted to do it again,” Chowdhury said. “It was really fun and a great opportunity to meet new people and gain some skills that you wouldn’t really get in other clubs.”

There was a questionnaire and based on their answers, the girls were chosen to be the leaders of their team.

Gao said that she wanted to get involved because she understands that there are a great number of people who have blood cancers. “Finding a cure would really make a difference in so many people’s lives,” she said. “The money we make goes directly towards them, and being involved in this organization is so good for our morality.”

Sayeem agreed with Gao, and added that it’s great for them to be a part of a national initiative to raise money for blood cancer. “It’s really moving to be a part of such a large movement,” she said. “Everyone knows someone who has suffered from cancer unfortunately and being able to help with something that influences such a wide range of people is really something that was so important to me.”

The group has done one fundraiser where they raffled off free bowling tickets and they plan to have two more before the end of the campaign. They have raised around $2,500. Their goal is $10,000 and Chowdhury believes that they can do it. “One year a group raised $500,000 but as long as we reach our goal, I’m happy with that,” she said. “They probably had resources we didn’t and at the end of the day we both worked to raise money that will help people.”

Chowdhury said that being a leader really opened her eyes to the amount of work and pressure that goes into raising large sums of money and overseeing a lot of people. “It’s been an amazing process of seeing all of our hard work pay off and seeing how much money we’ve raised,” she said. “It’s cool to see how excited people are as well.”

“It’s a lot of work but it really helped my work ethic and helped me with how to deal with these situations,” Gao said. “It motivates us to see our team members get excited and see how we’re all working together.”

Sayeem said that even though she works behind the scenes, she loves seeing the entire team get together and help reach their goal. “It’s a really satisfying feeling at the end of the day,” she said.

The girls said that they have loved the feedback they’ve been receiving.

“With the fundraisers, people will come up to us and tell us about their personal experiences with cancer and that really puts into perspective how many people have known someone who has dealt with cancer,” Chowdhury said. “It’s heartbreaking to see how many people have known someone with cancer but it also creates a sense of community for them.”

The girls said they are excited to participate again next year. “We learned a lot from our experience this year,” Gao said. “It would be great to apply everything we learned this year to help us raise more next year.”

To help the Crushing Cancer Cells team reach their goal, go to https://events.lls.org/li/lisoy22/teastmeado by March 24 to donate.