Leukemia, Lypmphoma Society collects spare change for good

It’s not every day that a principal, masquerading as multiplying cancer cells, attempts to attack healthy blood and platelets in front of the entire school.

 

Rob Hartman, principal of Walton-Verona Elementary School, was good-humoredly assisting the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society of Cincinnati last week in a student skit demonstrating how cancer affects the body. In the six years that the school has participated in this fundraiser, it has raised more than $15,500, all in loose change, in a program called “Pennies for Pasta.”

 

Walton-Verona is just one of more than local 330 schools that participate in this Leukemia & Lymphoma Society outreach program. By partnering with the Mayerson Service Learning Initiative and Children, Inc., the local Leukemia & Lymphoma Society visits almost a third of area schools to spread the message about cancer, its causes and treatment, and how school children can help with its cure.

 

“Children, Inc. comes up with the curriculum connections between service learning so that the kids aren’t just dong community service [through fund-raising], they are learning classroom knowledge, too,” says Annette Zottoli of Children, Inc. By providing books, videos and interactive role playing, even very young students gain a better understanding of the science behind cancer. They are already aware of it personally.

“At the assembly, when the kids were asked if they knew someone who had cancer, almost all the hands went up,” recollects Zottoli. “I was shocked.”

 

“It’s a service learning project in a box,” says Betsy Ruwe, school and youth senior campaign manager for the local Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. The society provides everything from collection boxes and posters to DVDs and lesson plans that can work with a school’s health curriculum. The program is raising almost a half-million dollars yearly, but just as importantly, “the biggest thing we’re after is creating an awareness that we exist.”

 

 

• Investigate: how to bring this program to your local school by contacting the society, 800-955-4572.

 

• Discover: what other else the Mayerson Service Learning Program is supporting.

 

• Donate: your spare change at a local school fundraiser; contact the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society tri-state chapter to find a participating school near you.