Sophomore Fundraises Thousands for Cancer Research

Francesca Piro (center) and her fundraising team.

Blood Cancer United is a research and support organization that aims to find treatments for blood cancer and works toward helping those diagnosed with blood cancer find affordable and accessible treatment.  Founded in 1949, they are a global organization with branches that serve local communities everywhere. One of their major outreach programs is the Student Visionaries of the Year.  Through this program, high school students can work on leadership skills while fundraising for blood cancer.

Francesca Piro, a sophomore at CCHS, is a member of the Student Visionaries group and is working with a team of 12 other high schoolers to fundraise.  They have been meeting since the start of the year, and in this time, they have been working together to reach their fundraising goal of $60,000. To raise funds, they reach out to families, friends, and businesses.  This team is composed of sophomores and juniors, with students from Culver City High School, Santa Monica High School, and Palisades High.  Piro personally has a fundraising goal of $25,000 with a focus on raising money for research.  Research is one of Blood Cancer United’s three pillars, with the other two being patient advocacy and support. Piro explains that research “felt like the best way to search every day for even more solutions to the cancer problems in today’s world”.  Since 1949, Blood Cancer United has donated $1.8 billion dollars to advance treatment and fight cancer.

In their time working together, the team raised about $39,000. They also won the Research Pillar Award from the organization. However, donations are still being collected, so this amount is not yet final. Personally, Francesca Piro has raised $17,000, contributing to their overall goal.

But for Piro, this program is more than just another extracurricular—one of the reasons she joined this program is a more personal one.  As someone who has lost family members to cancer, Piro said that aiding Blood Cancer United in their mission is a way to help make sure that more “families don't have to deal with not being able to spend quality time with their loved ones.”  The recent loss of a family member made her especially aware of the fact that there is still so much “research that still needs to be done.”  She says that “by putting [her] time and support into this cause, [she] feels like hopefully [she] can make a difference in changing what can be a solution to cancer in the future.”