Emily McBreen raising money for Leukemia & Luymphoma Society (LLS)

Fundraising Events planned around Salado in Jan. and Feb.

Salado freshman Emily McBreen has been nominated by the South Central Austin Chapter of the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society (LLS) as a candidate in their Students of the Year fundraising challenge.

“I could not be more excited to make a difference in the lives of patients across the country!” she said.

A seven week fundraising campaign kicked off on Jan. 12 and culminates on March 1 with a Grand Finale Celebration on where Austin’s Student of the Year will be announced. Every dollar raised counts as a “vote” towards my campaign and the Student with the most “votes” will be named the winner.

McBreen has set a lofty goal of raising $10,000 towards this effort.

“I am particularly passionate about this organization because I am watching both my Nana and Papa who are Salado residents battle blood cancers. My Nana was just diagnosed this past summer with Lymphoma and my Papa was diagnosed eight years ago with Leukemia.”

Emily is the granddaughter of Michael and Mary Lou McBreen, also of Salado, and the daughter of Kevin and Allyson McBreen, owners of Jake’s Rentals in Salado.

Jake’s Rentals takes its name from the first letter of each family member: J is Joseph, a 21 year old son of Kevin and Allyson, A is Allyson, K is Kevin and E is for Emily.

Ally and a team of friends will be working for donations over the next seven weeks, including cooking and serving meals during Pint Nights at Chupacabra Craft Beer in downtown Salado on Jan. 19, Feb. 2 and Feb. 16. On Jan 19, she will be serving burgers and chips to go along with brews from Independence Brewery that you can purchase at Chupacabra (provided you are over 21 for the alcohol purchase). One Feb. 2, she will be cooking up chili or Frito Pie to go along with brews from Infamous Brewing Company and Feb. 16 she will be serving sloppy Joes with cole slaw or chips to go with brews from Karbach Brewing Company.

She also has plans for a five-course dinner and wine pairing on Jan. 28 at Salado Lone Star Winery with food catered by Sliders in Jarrell. Only 30 tickets will be sold for this event at $50 per person with all proceeds being donated to the fundraising campaign. Tickets for this event can be purchased at Salado Creek Winery, Sliders restaurant in Jarrell or Jakes Rentals in Salado. You can also reserve your spot by emailing ally@jakesrental.com.  That evening will include a Silent Auction, toward which many items have already been donated by many local business – like The Nest, The Red Cactus, Shoppes on Main, Prellop Fine Art Gallery, Connies, and Thomas Kinkade Stagecoach Gallery. “We hope to receive many more in the next few weeks,” Emily says.

She is also planning two other events. She is hoping to have a babysitting service 6-10 p.m. Feb. 14 for Valentines night. She is asking donations of $10 per hour per child for this.

She is also planning an event to pit teachers against students in a fun tournament format.

Raising funds for cancer is a personal issue for the High School freshman.

“I hate watching my Nana go through her treatments each month,” Emily said. “Her monthly treatment is expected to last for another two-and-a-half years.”

LLS offers support for patients, survivors and their families. “It has been a tremendous resource for my family as each of my grandparents was diagnosed.”

“I really hope the money raised funds more research to continue to improve the treatment options and finding a cure for all blood cancers,” she said. “Another reason, I choose to support LLS is the treatments that LLS is funding benefit all cancer patients.”

“More than 40 percent of the new cancer treatment drugs approved by the FDA since 2004,” she says, “actually started as blood cancer drugs but are now being applied in other forms of cancer treatment. So their research has far greater impact.”

If you cannot attend one of the events, but would like to help out in raising funds, you can make direct monetary donations in Emily’s name  through the website: http://events.lls.org/pages/sctx/austinsoy2017/emcbreen