The Leukemia and Lymphoma society gladly accepts money from Erie students who both donate coins to add to their class total, and students who unknowingly sabotage their class by donating dollar bills. 

Greta Von Bernuth is the Advisor of NHS at Erie Highschool, and the organizer of Coins for Cancer. She explains that, “Coins For Cancer is a fundraiser drive to support the Leukemia Lymphoma Society, which is blood cancer and it’s one of the most prominent cancers that afflicts young people.” 

The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society is a nonprofit organization that does not get money from the American Cancer Society. Von Bernuth noticed this issue, and organized the Coins For Cancer fundraiser. The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, “Relies 100% on donations from people, organizations, and schools like us.” She adds, “Erie Highschool has been doing this for probably about 15 years, but not in the last two years with everything [going on].”

At Erie, the fundraiser works in the way that, “[Students will]  get a bucket in [their] block 2 class. You bring in coins…and that counts positively.” Von Bernuth added, “You can sabotage another class by putting dollar bills into their buckets. Dollar bills work negatively towards a class total.” 

NHS, the National Honor Society, is an organization of students with the required minimum GPA, who make the world a better place through volunteering in their community. Von Bernuth says,“If a student is interested in doing it next year, then they should be sure they have a great GPA and apply in January of next year. Coins for Cancer is one of many fundraisers created by NHS.” 

Students and teachers have already started donating to their class total. The class who raises the most “positive coin money” will get food from Chick-Fil-A.