And the winner of the 2020 Student of the Year is... Marleigh Hayes!  Congratulations to the soon to be senior at The New School in Fayetteville.  Marleigh ran as a candidate to advocate for blood cancer patients and their families who need the most help through their trials.  A special note of appreciation goes to her Gold Sponsor, Simmons Foods, who helped her secure the win.  We appreciate the work of Marleigh and her Kiss It, Cancer! team who worked hard mailing hundreds of letters, gathering auction items and sending emails to rally support for The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society.  By raising $29,818 during the pandemic, they showed that beating cancer is definitely in their blood!

A shout out also goes to the Northwest Arkansas Student of the Year Runner Up, Team Open Hearts, led by Rachael Thumma, Bilal Raza and Dheeksha Krishnan.  This trio of candidates from Bentonville High School raised $22,007.50!! They also were presented with the Relentless Award for their tireless efforts in fundraising to find a cure for cancer.    

The staff of LLS appreciates all 11 candidate teams who participated in the 2020 campaign and hope to see them continue to be the philanthropic leaders of their generation.