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CAC announces year-long campaign
Thursday October 25 2007
Last year, in only three months, Elizabethtown College’s newly formed chapter of Colleges Against Cancer (CAC) raised more than $30,000 for the American Cancer Society through the College’s first ever Relay For Life.This year, the organization has taken a more extensive approach to supporting the Society’s mission. On October 1, 2007, CAC announced the start of its first year-long campaign, It’s More Than One Disease. The student organization hopes to bring attention to the various types of cancer and the widespread impact the disease has on people of all ages and backgrounds.
Ryan Chamberlain, a 2006 graduate of Elizabethtown College, presented the campaign to CAC last year.
The campaign will include previously successful CAC activities, such as the Relay For Life, but will also premier new fundraising opportunities this year. As part of its initiative, the group has partnered with YSCards.com for a unique fundraiser.
Suzanne Strauss, a high school English teacher in Florence, recently launched YSCards.com, a web-based business that sells blank greeting cards decorated with Suzanne’s mother Yvette Strauss’s watercolor paintings. The proceeds fund pancreatic cancer research. YSCards.com is a project the mother and daughter team started in January of 2007, in the final months of the elder’s life. Yvette Strauss was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in March of 2006, and died in March of 2007.
A native of Brooklyn, NY, and a long time resident of Bergen County, NJ, Yvette Strauss began to concentrate on watercolor painting a few years ago as a way of connecting with nature and the world. Her work allowed her to express feelings of peace and serenity. Her optimistic watercolors focus on landscapes, seascapes, florals and still life. Her work has been exhibited in a number of juried shows and in a one-person exhibition at the Cresskill, NJ, Public library in November, 2006.
CAC began selling the greeting cards during Homecoming weekend. While YSCards.com profits will be donated to pancreatic cancer research, roughly three dollars from every set of cards sold will be donated to the student organization’s campaign.
While this new fundraising venue promises to benefit both Elizabethtown College and cancer research, Chamberlain has not forgotten the Relay For Life’s undeniable success in 2006. He walked with his brother in memory of their uncle who passed away from lung cancer and their father who had successfully overcome battles with Non Hodgkin’s Lymphoma in 2002 and Hodgkin’s Lymphoma in 2006.
“The first step toward understanding cancer is recognizing that it’s more than one disease,” Chamberlain said. “My father was diagnosed with cancer twice. While similar, they were not the same disease. Our campaign allows us to educate the community about the different types of cancer and hopefully help them understand that there is no blueprint.”
The American Cancer Society Colleges Against Cancer is a nationwide collaboration of college students, faculty, and staff dedicated to eliminating cancer by initiating and supporting American Cancer Society programs in college communities. Chapters support the Society’s mission by promoting activities in advocacy, education and prevention, Relay For Life, and survivorship.
A number of fundraising events and activities will take place throughout the school year. Junior Beth Ann Patti, president of CAC, noted, “Members of CAC will be visiting with the local middle school to design holiday cards for children fighting cancer at Hershey Medical, talking with local businesses and their employees about cancer prevention, and volunteering at Hope Lodge in Hershey for Into the Streets.”
In addition, CAC will be holding its second annual Relay For Life April 18 and 19, and welcome community participation and support.
To find more information on Colleges Against Cancer, to make a donation to the campaign or to purchase greeting cards, contact Beth Ann Patti and Anna Quimby at CAC@etown.edu or Ryan Chamberlain at ryanjchamberlain@gmail.com.
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