Austin area teens team up to fight cancer in fundraising competition. Here's how to help

"It was gut-wrenching, life-changing," Dean Lundquist said of his son Jackson's diagnosis of leukemia in 2022. The first thing Dean and his wife, Lauri, asked doctors was: "Is he going to live?"

They were told he would get through it, but there would be many steps, many treatments before that would happen.

The 13-year-old was named the honor hero for this year's Leukemia & Lymphoma Society's Student Visionaries of the Year for the Central Texas area.

Jackson's is the personal story the student visionaries can wrap their heads around as the 19 teams of students throughout Central Texas raise money to support research, advocacy and patient care for people with lymphoma and leukemia.

"Here in your, in our community there are kids in the middle of this fight every day," Steve Roberts, co-chair of the student visionaries program, told the students.

Jackson, who has done his own fundraising golf tournament to donate $100,000 to Dell Children's Medical Center, where he received his treatment, said he is "thankful" for the work the teens will do in seven weeks to try to raise $750,000 as a group.

Students helping fellow students, adults

Each year, groups of teens apply to be the student visionaries in Central Texas. They form a team of supporters with their parents, other adults and fellow students. Then they launch a campaign through letter writing, asking corporate donors, holding events and using social media. The team that raises the most gets to compete on a national level.

"We feel unbelievable about the young men and women who have signed up to do this with us," Roberts said. "I can't thank you enough for the impact you are going to make."

The student team leaders apply months in advance to be part of the student visionaries program. By November, they are chosen by the LLS leadership council. Fundraising kicks off at the beginning of January. This year, it will conclude Feb. 24.

Last year, teams raised about $40,000 on average for a total of $650,000. This year the goal is to exceed that.

Learning more about philanthropy, cancer

Along the way, the student visionaries are given guidance and asked questions: How are you going to reach your goal? To whom can you reach out for donations? Whom are you asking to be on your team? They are taught how to pitch corporate sponsorships, how to write donation letters, how to build an effective presentation and how to maintain a spreadsheet.

"A big thing for us is sponsorships and working with certain companies that are helping us really raise money and placing those bigger donations," said Cameron Long, 16, from Austin High School and Team Loyal to the Cure.

"It's a very unique opportunity that this program affords students to really understand and learn about philanthropy," said Clarissa Flores, the regional executive director of the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society-South Central Texas.

Most important, the students are trained in the "why" of making a donation to LLS. They are given chances to learn more about blood cancers. In January, they went to St. David's South Austin Medical Center to learn about its Sarah Cannon Transplant & Cellular Therapy Program. They decorated the areas where patients receive their treatments with Valentine's Day messages and hearts.

For Caroline Shaw, 15, from Austin High School, raising money for cancer advocacy is personal. The co-leader of Team Racing for a Cure is named after her grandmother who died of a blood cancer while her father was in high school.

"I'm kind of carrying on her legacy," she said.

In addition to sending emails and letters, her team is planning giving back nights at local restaurants.

Jack Schocket, 17, from Anderson High School, participated last year as a team member before he was asked to lead a team this year.

"I think it's a great cause," he said.

His team, SCHOCK Cancer, is trying to get sponsorships, asking friends, sending letters, "just anything we can to raise a couple hundred more because anything helps."

How to donate

All of the Central Texas teams can be found at https://www.llsstudentvisionaries.org/soy-candidates/6826.

How to become a student visionary

The application for next year's visionary program is live. Students have to be in ninth to 12th grade in the 2024-25 school year. For more information, go to https://www.llsstudentvisionaries.org/get-involved/become-candidate.

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Texas students team up to raise money for Leukemia & Lymphoma Society