Junior raises money for leukemia research

It was 11 a.m. on a Saturday morning. As junior Dean Stratakos took a short break from working on his AP U.S. History homework, he switched tabs and opened up the fundraising portal to the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society (LLS), which he had been working on for the past few weeks, to check to see if anyone had donated money or items for the upcoming silent auction.

In early January, Stratakos joined the 2017 Students of the Year Campaign for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, which aims to fund research to discover a cure for blood cancers. Stratakos, along with several other high school students from the Bay Area, will be working for the next few weeks to raise money for and increase awareness of LLS.

Stratakos started by making calls within the neighborhood and telling friends and family about his cause, but when principal Paul Robinson featured Stratakos’ fundraising project in his “Week at a Glance” email on Jan. 13, the school community was made aware of his project.

To Stratakos, joining the LLS had very personal implications. At age 5, he lost his grandmother, who he knew as Lola, to colon cancer.

At her funeral, Stratakos said that he vividly remembers standing in the middle of the path of the men from the mortuary as they carried her coffin down the stairs, hoping that he could somehow save her.

“I was very close with my Lola, and it hurt me that she had passed away from cancer and was no longer a part of my life,” Stratakos said.  

Over a decade later, he is hoping his work with LLS is contributing to the path to find a cure for forms of cancer such as leukemia and lymphoma.  

Stratakos is currently fundraising money to honor two 7-year-olds who are in remission, Armaan and Aubrey. Armaan was diagnosed with B-Cell Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia at age 5, while Aubrey was diagnosed with T-Cell Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia at age 3.

Even though everyone working with the organization is doing so for their own reasons, Stratakos believes that his personal ties to cancer have driven him to work especially hard and passionately for LLS.

“Almost everyone knows someone who has or had some form of cancer,” Stratakos said. “I felt like LLS was my calling to help fight cancer.”

Stratakos, who is a tennis player, and his teammates who also volunteer with LLS decided to host an event for the end of this month where individuals can pay to play against them in practice games to promote fundraising.

“It will be a fun tournament for both my friends and me as well as the other competitors,” Stratakos said.

Although Stratakos is happy to have found a way to honor his grandmother’s life by fundraising for LLS through online crowdfunding and silent auctions, he hopes that his peers will also be able to find their own passions in similar ways.

Stratakos and his fundraising team have so far raised nearly $4,000 and anticipate to raise more before the project is over.

“I hope that all students are inspired by Speak Up for Change to ‘run their own race,’ whether it is a fundraising program for a meaningful cause, or setting personal goals for yourself,” Stratakos said.