Adeline's Allies: GISD Students Fight Cancer Together
Adeline Jansson, Freshman at Georgetown High School (GHS), has been a loud advocate for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society (LLS) since she was diagnosed with a rare form of Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia (LLS) in 2020.
“On top of trying to find a cure for all blood cancers, LLS works to improve quality of life for patients and their families,” Katie Jansson, Adeline’s mother and Ford Elementary School teacher, said. “LLS connects families that are in similar situations for support, provides children with rides to treatment, and even helps to pay rent in some circumstances.”
Every year, LLS runs Students of the Year, a philanthropic leadership development program for high school students. The program gives students across the country the opportunity to get a team together and run a campaign in order to raise funds for LLS. This year, Adeline is among the candidates competing for the “Student of the Year” title in the Austin area.
“Students of the Year is technically a competition, but it is more about the cause that the money we raise is going towards,” Adeline said. “And in the process of campaigning, students develop life-long leadership and business skills.”
Adeline and her team, which consists of 8 other students from GHS, Forbes Middle School and Benold Middle School, have held sponsorship meetings with local businesses, are planning and hosting fundraising events, and finding their voices in the community to ask for personal donations.
“I have been able to talk to many people that I normally wouldn’t get to communicate with in both my school and my community”, Emerson Guerra, eighth grader at Forbes and Adeline’s team member, said. “Working on this campaign has really shown me what I can do if I put my heart into something and speak out.”
“When Adeline first asked me to be on her campaign team, I knew it was going to be a lot of work, but definitely worth it for the cause,” Miravani Byerly, Freshman at GHS and Adeline’s team member, said. “I’ve been able to build communications skills and the confidence to reach out to people and fight for a cause that is such an amazing one.”
One of the aspects of Adeline’s campaign that makes it unique – besides her being the youngest candidate – is the fact that she is the only candidate this year who is an active patient in cancer treatment.
“I have family members that have passed away from cancer, so being a part of this campaign has a personal meaning to me” Ben Crowley, Junior at GHS and Adeline’s team member, said. “And then to see a whole team come together in support of Adeline who is fighting her own battle, it is just a very cool thing to see.”
At the start of the campaign in January 2022, Adeline and her team set a very lofty fundraising goal that they were not sure could be met. Three weeks into the campaign, the goal had been surpassed.
“Throughout my journey with Leukemia, we have had a lot of community support,” Adeline said. “The fact that the community helped us surpass our fundraising goal so quickly is a testament to that.”
“We are almost two years into our battle with Leukemia, and there is still constant support from the Georgetown community,” Katie said. “Not everyone is lucky enough to have that kind of support, so I want to pay it forward by raising money for a cause that will give back.”
More
Adeline’s campaign runs until February 26th, and online donations will be accepted until 5 PM that day. You can visit Adeline’s website to learn more about the campaign and make a donation.
Georgetown Soccer Association has joined forces with Adeline to offer several opportunities to support her Student of the Year campaign the week of February 14-20. Learn more about these opportunities here.
