Making a difference: Student raises cancer awareness

PINE PLAINS — Every so often, a student enrolled at Stissing Mountain Junior/Senior High School will exhibit a genuine desire to inspire positive change in the world around her. Driven by her desire to “give children and young adults a fighting chance against leukemia and lymphoma,” Stissing Mountain High School junior Patience Tindall, 17, began her campaign for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society’s (LLS) Students of the Year program.

A resident of Ancramdale, Patience’s decision to pursue the program was motivated by her passion for helping people as well as multiple experiences with cancer in her family. Her first encounter occurred at age 4 when her mother’s parents died from cancer. In 2010, her cousin was diagnosed with lymphoma while her father, William, was diagnosed with colon cancer in 2012. While both her father and cousin emerged from their diagnoses as survivors, the experiences left an impression on Patience.

“It’s really scary and nerve wracking,” she reflected, “and it really shows you how much you love that family member because you don’t know what you would do without them if they were gone, and it shows you how short life is.”

Patience learned about the Students of the Year program through her school when campaign assistant Robin Mandel gave a presentation at Stissing Mountain High School this past March. 

As part of its goal “to cure leukemia, lymphoma, Hodgkin’s disease and myeloma, and improve the quality of life of patients and their families,” the LLS’s Students of the Year program stands as a philanthropic leadership development program designed for highly motivated and dedicated high school leaders, according to the program’s website. Throughout their participation in the program, students get to foster professional skills — such as project management, entrepreneurship and marketing — as they raise funds for LLS in honor of young blood cancer survivors. Following a seven week fundraising competition, the title of Student(s) of the Year is awarded to the candidate or co-candidate team in each community that raises the most funds.

According to Patience, students can partake in the program by forming teams, developing a fundraising goal and raising money through hosting events, asking for donations or sending out letters and emails. Among the benefits of participating in the program, students can earn a $2,500 scholarship for college and include their participation on their resumes.

“I think it’s important because if each student found an interest and we all worked together, I feel like we would be able to find a cure,” Patience said. “If we worked together, we could all become stronger and be able to find a cure a lot faster.”

Patience officially started her participation in the program on Saturday, March 16. From Thursday, April 4, until Thursday, May 23, she will be hard at work raising awareness of leukemia and lymphoma and collecting donations for the LLS with the help of her team, Patience for a Cure. Among the 11 people on her team, Patience will be accompanied on her mission by her parents, Hope and William Tindall; her sister, Mercy, a fifth grader at Seymour Smith Intermediate Learning Center; her cousin, Samantha MacDaniel; her friend, Dan Wittlinger and his father, Ancram Town Justice George Wittlinger Sr.; and a few of her friends from Pine Plains and Connecticut.

With a $60,000 fundraising goal in mind, Patience and her teammates have been putting up flyers, sending out emails and letters and brainstorming possible events for the last few weeks. 

“I hope to raise awareness and hopefully inspire people to do the same… inspire people to make a difference and support a cause because future generations shouldn’t have to know the pain of cancer,” Patience said.

Donations to Patience’s team can be made online at www.events.lls.org/uny/pousoy19/ptindall. Donors can also send a check addressed to the The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society for Patience for a Cure, P.O. Box 93, Ancramdale, N.Y. 12503.