#100,000Strong – Melanie Meyer

Melanie Meyer has played a pivotal role in a variety of philanthropic causes here in the Santa Clarita Valley for the past several years. Most recently, the Santa Clarita community watched Melanie triumph over a Hodgkin’s Lymphoma cancer diagnosis with a smile on her face, all while continuing to give back those causes close to her heart. The most recent cause that Melanie has become involved with is The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. (LLS)
Inspired by the Light the Night Walk put on by The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, Melanie decided to get more involved with this charity. “We participated in the walk in last October, and we raised a significant amount of money for them. They then came to us and asked if I would consider being a candidate for their ‘The Woman of the Year’ fundraising program.“ Each year, this philanthropic competition awards the title to the man and woman who raises the most money to support blood cancer research among a group of motivated and dedicated individuals in communities across the United States. “They [representatives from The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society] sat down with us and helped us come up with a goal. We felt, with our connections in this community, that we could set a goal of raising $100,000.” To raise this amount of money, Melanie plans on using a “grass-roots” approach and utilizing larger systems like Charitybuzz. “It’s similar to a silent auction site, where we can post items and services for people to bid on. A large percentage of the money then goes to the charity we have selected.”
Melanie holds this cause dear to her heart because she is a blood cancer survivor and accredits her survival to organizations like The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. “If LLS didn’t do research, I may not have survived. The bottom line is that I am here because of organizations like these. Over the years, LLS, has raised over a billion dollars to further blood cancer research and a large portion of these funds have contributed to new and innovative treatments. This research has helped cure not only blood cancers, but other cancers, which is why I’m compelled to raise these funds.” Although it is a big undertaking, Melanie and Jeff have enlisted the help of other community members to reach their goal. “We are building a team of supporters to help us keep in contact with the several hundred people we will be reaching out to.”
From now until the end of the fundraising campaign on May 8, Melanie and her team will be working hard to reach this goal of raising $100,000 for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society and be named Woman of the Year. Winning this award would simply be an added perk that would ultimately complement her true goal of helping people survive cancer. “If I raise these dollars and I end up winning the role of Woman of the Year for LLS, I will of course, be very happy, but that is not what drives me to win in this challenge. When I said yes to participating in this fundraising campaign, I learned that I was the only survivor in the competition. This was disheartening, and eye opening. I want there to be more blood cancer survivors, and I believe the funds raised will do just that, create more survivors!”
For more information on the fundraiser and to see how you can donate to help the thousands of families battling blood cancers, please visit: https://pages.lls.org/mwoy/calso/goldcoast20/jmeyer 

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