The Science National Honor Society (SNHS) ended their annual ‘Pennies for Patients’ fundraiser with a total of $4,181 for the Leukemia Lymphoma Society. The final result was more than $1,000 than last year’s total.
In the span of almost two months, the SNHS manages to raises little over $3,000 from student donations. AHS was a runner up in the Holt Weeks Trailblazer Cup, which is an LLS award given for innovative fundraising. AHS was also the top fundraiser in Northern Virginia, which prompted a shout out from local radio station Hot 99.5 FM. Though the goal was to raise $5,000, senior Hung Truong, the president of the SNHS, is very happy and proud of all the effort the SNHS put to raise money.
“We made a lot of flyers, kept the school updated on Pennies for Patients related announcements, asked for online donations from students and faculty members and hosted bake sales every other week,” Truong said. “We pretty much got the word out about the mission of the fundraiser.”
The SNHS did everything they could to raise money by creating fun events that would attract the students. Bake Sales, Penny Wars, Movie Night and even donating online were just a few of the strategies used to get as much money as possible.
“Date for a Cure (the guy auction) definitely brought in the most money with over $600 made in a single Atom Time Collaboration period,” Truong said. “That was only 25 minutes. Our contestants were 11 of Annandale’s most outgoing guys and I guess they just attracted a lot of attention. The audience members loved how ‘low-key’ it was because it was a student run event and only seniors and juniors were allowed to bid. The two Vera Bradley bags that we received as a donation gift courtesy of Vera Bradley also helped attract the female audience members. Leadership also helped make banners which advertised the event and for that, I am extremely grateful. “
The SHNS has also thought of other lucrative events to help reach their goal next year.
“We did come up with this elaborate plan for a basketball event that was to take place during the Annandale basketball season. The whole point was to get the large sporting community involved,” Truong said. “Unfortunately, administrators did not approve of the event. Basically, it was a three point shootout competition between contestants who signed up. We would have had brackets of the players made and given sporting good prizes to the people with the correct brackets. Top three winners of the event would have received awesome trophies courtesy of Trophy Mart. The whole thing was planned out, we just could not get it approved…. Hopefully next year.”
As a senior, Truong was very happy to be a part of such a good cause and will miss ‘Pennies for Patients.’ His favorite event was the Movie Night.
“We had a six-year-old cancer survivor named Tyler show up to watch Toy’s Story 3 with us,” Truong said. “Even though we had a poor turnout and the event was not our most successful, just seeing Tyler’s smile made the night all worthwhile. It made me realize the significance of what I was doing and that meant a lot. I hope we can get a better turnout next year for another lucky patient.”
