The Beat Boswell Beat Cancer competition is underway. The competition started Sept. 10 and ends Sept. 28.

The competition is head to head with our rival school, Boswell High, to see who can raise the most money for the Leukemia Lymphoma Society (LLS). The two schools will celebrate the conclusion of the competition at the Take The Lake game on October 12 at Hornet Field.

“We connected with Boswell’s student council at a summer workshop,” senior and Student Council member Ema Waring said. “When we met them, we decided that the Take The Lake game was so big and we both did Pennies for Patients, we wanted to collaborate together and make it a rivalry against our schools at the same time.”

The primary method for raising money is teachers having students bring in money; the top four classes that bring in the most money win a prize of an Olive Garden lunch, Chick-Fil-A chicken nuggets, an ice cream party, or a candy cart respectively. Many of the teachers love the cause and each for their own reasons.

“I think everyone should care about others,” Geometry teacher Brenda Marlett said. “I’ve seen people suffer through a horrible disease and if we can do something about it, that may put an end to cancer or Leukemia Lymphoma, or any other diseases, we should do it.”

Last year, student council met their goal of $5,000, so this year, they want to go bigger and better.

“$8,000 is our goal because last year we raised almost $5,000 exactly,” Waring said. “This year, we thought we’d take the next step through LLS and try to raise $8,000.”

Within the first week of this event, Azle High School has raised almost $4,000 and on a trajectory to go even higher.

“We’re on the right path,” Marlett said. “Let’s keep going.”

The only way to raise this much money is to donate through the various resources in the school.

“I want people to donate because I’ve personally read the stories on the LLS website, especially about the poster girl, Kennedy, she’s been through a lot of struggles in her life and she’s just recovering from, I believe it was Leukemia, she’s a survivor of that,” Waring said. “Those stories are really impactful and I believe that it’s an important cause that we should donate to.”

Some students donate for personal experiences that they’ve had with Leukemia Lymphoma.

“I had this really good friend of mine, who was going through the same thing, it was his senior year and he was really hoping to graduate and everyone thought he would make it because we did a lot of fundraisers for him,” Sophomore Gracelyn Claremont said. “He wasn’t expected to make it past his senior year and before the end of the year, he passed away, and it was really hard on our entire school.”

Leukemia lymphoma is a terrible disease. Many people have to live and suffer through it. But just by donating money, we can help save lives. This may seem like just a school event, but it’s more than that, so please donate, to help a person in need.