Rugby Middle Raises $2,559 for Leukemia & Lymphoma Society

For the past three weeks, Rugby Middle students have pooled together their birthday money, cash earned raking leaves, and weekly allowances for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, and on Friday presented a $2,559 check to LLS Campaign Assistant Robin Shaw.

The school’s National Junior Honor Society chose to do a service project raising money for LLS in honor of two current students who are leukemia survivors. Seventh-grader Lily Mintz was diagnosed with leukemia in kindergarten, and classmate Lauren Coley remembers her battle with the disease when they were both at Etowah Elementary. Eighth-grader Dylan Lawson was diagnosed with leukemia last year in the middle of his 7th-grade year, and only recently returned to school in April.

Coley said she and other students were inspired by Mintz’ and Lawson’s bravery and resilience.

“I thought they would be broken after their experience,” Coley said. “They came back to school and they were feeling better. They seemed confident.”

Throughout the campaign, Mintz and Lawson shared personal videos about their battles with leukemia with students, which Shaw appreciated.

“Thank you for sharing your story with the students,” Shaw said. “I know sometimes you don’t want to be ‘the kid with cancer,’ you just want it to be over.”

Rugby students can still recall how their friends were feeling while they were still wishing their battles were over, and raised money for blood cancer research so other children and adults can also have happy endings.

They sold cut-out paper pumpkins for $1 each during lunch for three weeks, and a bit of friendly competition among homeroom classes encouraged students to plaster as many pumpkins on their teachers’ doors as possible.

School Counselor Leanne Perry said she watched as children chose to buy paper pumpkins with their ice cream money, and included their families in the campaign.

Janet Trubey’s 6th grade class, which is where Lawson had homeroom two years ago, raised $470 – the most of any class.

“I had 100 percent student participation,” Trubey said.

“I had first brought in $44 and my dad matched me,” said Addison Russell, a 6th-grader in Trubey’s class who ultimately raised $136. “And my grandparents and sister gave, too.”

Having raised the most money for LLS, Trubey’s class will receive a special, catered Olive Garden meal for lunch, and also helped present the $2,559 check to Shaw on Friday.

Shaw told students that every three minutes, someone is diagnosed with blood cancer, and almost 14,000 families in North Carolina are fighting the disease. She told them the money they raised will go directly to researching blood cancers, and they can be proud to be part of the cure when, one day, it is found.

“We are working relentlessly to find a cure for blood cancer, and we believe it’s going to happen in your lifetime,” Shaw said.

“You guys are rock stars for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society,” she said. “I’m so glad that my world is going to be in your hands.”

(Article written by Molly McGowan Gorsuch, HCPS Public Information Officer.)