Amherst ’Canes Help People Living with Cancer

AMHERST — Amherst Regional High School students, known as the Hurricanes — or the ’Canes for short — have again whipped up support for an important cause: helping people with cancer in the local community.

Members of the Future Business Leaders of America (FBLA), an after-school organization at the high school, recently donated $5,000 from the sale of their ’Canes for the Cure T-shirts to the Cancer Care Fund at Cooley Dickinson Hospital, which brings its total contributions to $13,000.

This most recent check ceremony marked the sixth year of the ’Canes for the Cure project. Since it began, “FBLA has given three checks to the Cancer Care Fund, each in two-year increments — $3,000 in 2011 and $5,000 in 2013,” said James Kirwan, a former FBLA member who lost his mother to cancer when he was a teenager.

The initiative began in 2010 when FBLA President Anshuyl Dhanker and other members were looking for a way to give back to the community and to occupy the club during the winter months.

Students earn funds by selling ’Canes for the Cure T-shirts, which are paid for through local business partnerships and varsity basketball games. In its first year, Kirwan recalls, the club received $100 sponsorships from nine local businesses. “With this money, FBLA was able to donate all proceeds from the sale of the T-shirts to the Cooley Dickinson Cancer Care Fund.”

Added Georgia Moore, CDH’s director of leadership gifts, “the funds benefit the Cancer Care Fund, which directly support people living with cancer and their families.”

Amherst Regional High School Principal Mark Jackson said he and the school administration are very proud of the students. “Year in and year out, they make a difference in the world.”

Each year, ’Canes for the Cure has grown. In 2013, FBLA sold 250 T-shirts and had 25 business partners serve as $100 sponsors.

“The fund-raiser showed us that every person, even a ninth-grader, can make a difference,” Kirwan said.

John Page, president of Future Business Leaders of America, added that “FBLA is so proud that we can be a small part of all the amazing work that is being done at Cooley Dickinson. Several of our students have had family members affected by cancer, and to them, our efforts are all the more meaningful.”