It’s been an incredible year at The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society (LLS). From launching The LLS Children’s Initiative: Cures and Care for Children with Cancer to celebrating our 70th anniversary to seeing more than a dozen blood cancer treatment options approved for patients, we have a lot to be grateful for this season.
None of this work would be possible without you: our supporters and volunteers who share our relentless drive to cure cancer. In honor of National Family Volunteer Day on Saturday, 11/23, we thank our dedicated volunteer partners across the country who give their time and talent to LLS each and every day.
When you volunteer with LLS, you become part of our vibrant community of supporters who represent all walks of life and bring unique experiences and passions to drive forward our mission. You become invaluable partners to our staff in our quest for cancer cures. And you become part of the LLS family because beating cancer is in our blood. With countless ways to engage, our volunteers are truly making a difference and for some, getting involved with LLS is a family affair.
For the Wolberg family, “nothing is more beautiful than giving back together,” says Margeaux, a passionate LLS volunteer and sophomore at Columbia University and the Jewish Theological Seminary.
Margeaux has been participating in LLS’s Light The Night fundraising campaign since she was two years old. The Wolbergs formed a Friends & Family Light The Night team in San Francisco in 2002 after Margeaux’s father, Michael, was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. Creating their own team offered an important sense of community for the family and over the years, their involvement deepened. “LLS supports the kind of work that saved my dad’s life and the lives of others. It feels like the most important thing we could be doing as a family,” says Margeaux. Her father has been in remission for nearly 15 years.
The family volunteers with LLS in different ways. Margeaux’s mother, Kirsten, served previously on the Greater Bay Area Chapter’s Board of Trustees and runs an executive team at her company Docusign. Her dad and her sister, Annika, fundraise and join Light The Night each year. In 2011, Margeaux became Team Captain of the Michael Wolberg Remission Team at the age of 12 – an incredible feat. “The amount of respect and support I received from other volunteers, teams and LLS staff was amazing. It was very powerful to have a community of people believe in me,” she adds.
Since then, Margeaux has continued to give her time and talent, from collaborating with LLS staff to create a special High School Challenge fundraiser in San Francisco to participating in Planning Committees and sharing her story. Today, she leads her family’s Light The Night team – a top team in San Francisco – and volunteers with LLS’s New York City Chapter, including helping out at a recent LLS Blood Cancer Conference.
“Volunteering with LLS is the one of the best ways for us to honor my dad, show our gratitude and fuel the work of an organization that is helping other families fight cancer,” says Margeaux.
No matter how you choose to volunteer – in a team, with your family or as an individual who wants to achieve a world without blood cancer – we appreciate your extraordinary efforts. When someone asks you why you are volunteering with LLS, instead of any number of other things you could be doing, please tell them: “Because I’m curing cancer.” Because you are!
From our family at LLS to yours: thank you. Thank you for sharing your time, talent and passion with us.
If beating cancer is in your blood, we have a rewarding volunteer opportunity for you – whatever your interests, skills or time commitments.