Local woman raises $133,000 for cancer research
Manhattan Beach resident Janice Bender, who won the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society L.A. chapter’s Woman of the Year, and Thais Chung, who won the Boy of the Year Award. Photo by Linda Marie Stella
by Andrea Ruse
In March, Janice Bender played in her first flip-cup tournament at a local bar.
Later that month, she served beer to 400 people at a local church.
As if that’s not impressive enough, she also raised several thousand dollars in the process.
Through these and other events, the Manhattan Beach resident led a team of 21 women in raising over $133,000 for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society (LLS), setting a fundraising record for the organization’s L.A. chapter.
And she did it all in 10 weeks.
“I can’t believe we did that,” Bender said. “We made up our plan and went for it. We had unbelievable support, but we really did surprise ourselves.”
For her team’s sizable contribution, in April Bender was crowned Woman of the Year by the LLS L.A. chapter at the Henry Fonda Music Box Theater in Hollywood.
The LLS Woman & Man of the Year Campaign is a 10-week fundraising event that began in 1990. Participants compete to raise the most money toward treatment of blood cancers. This year’s event was the second involvement in the program by the L.A. chapter.
“I was just the figurehead for the team,” Bender said. “I had an amazing team of friends from the South Bay and other cities.”
Bender’s team, called “Women Across America,” set an ambitious goal of $100,000. Last year, contributions from all teams combined totaled $173,000.
From February thru April, Women Across America averaged over $10,000 a week in collections.
“Everything had to happen within that time period,” Bender said. “Not one dollar could be raised before or after the 10 weeks.”
Bender’s team wrote to every friend and family member in the country — as far as Baltimore — asking for donations. After those people sent a check, the team asked them to solicit their friends and family for more.
It paid off.
Women Across America more than doubled the Man of the Year’s contribution of $50,344. Proving that every little bit counts, donations of $5 and $10 made up the bulk of the money the team raised. The largest checks were for $5,000.
“I was shocked at the generosity of people,” Bender said.
“We were lucky for the support of people like Janice,” said Serena Savino, senior campaign manager for the LLS L.A. Chapter. “I think their passion is what made the difference.”
Bender’s strategy was simple: Hold fundraising events targeting different groups.
A flip-cup tournament at Sharkeez in Hermosa Beach brought in the under-25 crowd, as well as a few thousand dollars.
“A busload of kids from U.S.C. made donations to play,” Bender said. “It made it something the younger generation could get involved with.”
Some of the East Coast transplants on the team suggested the idea of selling tickets to a Phillie-style “Beef ‘n’ Beer,” which is not much more than the name implies. American Martyrs Church in Manhattan Beach hosted the event, which included a silent auction, and Salt Creek Grille in El Segundo supplied the meat. Becker’s Bakery in Manhattan Beach donated dessert.
“It just sounded so silly to me,” Bender said. “All we’re giving out is beef ‘n’ beer. But it sold out.”
The event raised roughly $40,000.
Appealing to the softer crowd, the team raised close to $5,000 at a boutique sale held at a Manhattan home in February, where items donated by local businesses, including Bacchus Wine, were available.
By April, Women Across America exceeded their goal going into the fundraiser’s live auction finale. The auction put the team over the $133,000 mark.
“We really went to local businesses and had great support,” Bender said. “It really was a community event.”
The contest was not Bender’s first experience in making a life-saving donation.
In 1991, after attending an American Red Cross drive held at the school of one of her kids, Bender learned that her bone marrow was a match for a cancer patient. A toddler.
“He was a year old,” Bender said. “I had a two-year-old at the time. I thought, ‘What if that was my kid?’”
Bender donated her bone marrow anonymously, as encouraged by the Red Cross, and over the next few years often wondered about the baby who received her donation.
Five years later, the Red Cross invited Bender to speak about her experience to a group of potential donors.
“Afterward, they said, ‘Janice we have a surprise,’” Bender said. “And they brought out this little boy. He was six years old. It was the boy who had received my bone marrow. There wasn’t a dry eye in the house.”
Bender was shocked to see that the boy who received her bone marrow looked nothing like her. She had assumed her donation went to somebody of similar physical characteristics — that is, white and of European descent.
But in walked a little boy from the heart of Mexico.
He had inherited a congenital disease passed from mother-to-son, requiring that he get the transplant. All of his uncles passed away from the disease and Bender learned that he probably would not be alive had it not been for her bone marrow.
“Not only was I a good match,” Bender said. “I was perfect — as I would be for a sister. People always think, ‘I look like this and I’ll most likely match someone who looks like this.’ But you never know who it’s going to go to.”
Several years later, Bender became involved with the LLS, participating in various fundraising events, after her mother passed away from a blood cancer in 2003.
Earlier this year, the LLS L.A. chapter nominated Bender and 12 people to be a part of the challenge, in which the top female and male team leaders would be named Woman/Man of the Year for the organization.
“I absolutely didn’t know what I was doing,” said Bender, looking back over the 10-week whirlwind.
While Bender, who retired several years ago from a long career in radio and media relations, said she most likely won’t lead such a labor-intensive campaign again, she is nonetheless proud of the team’s accomplishment.
Bender will learn later this month whether she — out of the winners of the organization’s 64 chapters — raised enough to be named the LLS National Woman of the Year. The winner of last year’s national campaign raised a similar amount to Bender, according to Savino.
Overall proceeds from the fundraiser, which totaled $353,000 — 101 percent of money raised last year — will help fund patient services and research in blood cancers, such as the one that afflicted Bender’s mom.
“She’s been gone seven years,” Bender said. “I wish she were alive to see what we are doing. She would be so proud.”
For more information on how to donate or volunteer, visit www.leukemia-lymphoma.org. ER