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Two students at Saratoga Central Catholic School are fighting blood cancer, one donation at a time.

Salvatore Cerio, sophomore, and Noel Jukonski, freshman, are the first students in SCC history to become Student Visionaries for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society (LLS), the largest volunteer health organization dedicated to fighting blood cancer.

As part of the LLS Student Visionaries program — a philanthropic leadership development program for high-school students — Cerio and Jukonski will work to raise money for LLS as part of a seven-week fundraising competition for their individual teams.

The fundraising window opens Thursday, Feb. 2, and closes on Thursday, March 23. While the highlight of the campaign is to see how much each team can raise under the allotted time constraints, all proceeds will benefit the LLS organization, funding research initiatives, awareness campaigns and more.

“(Blood cancer) runs in my family and I’ve had many family members pass away from it,” Jukonski said. “So it feels good to do this because I’ve seen it happen in front of me.”

“In my family I’ve heard a lot about breast cancer, but not a lot about leukemia or lymphoma,” Cerio said. “I know those cancers exist, I just didn’t realize how prominent they were. It was kind of shocking to me.”

Christopher Signor, principal of Saratoga Central Catholic, noted this is the first time SCC has done the program. Signor was approached by LLS organizers last year about starting the program at his school. At the same time, Signor’s close friend, Sean Sullivan, was facing the end of a long battle with leukemia. Sullivan died in December after an 11-year fight with the cancer.

“So I went out to coffee with the organizers and agreed I could find some students and have teachers nominate students based on certain criteria,” he said, “and here we have our two ambassadors.”

Adding the work of fundraising and managing a team seemed daunting at first, Cerio said. Both ambassadors are already balancing school, clubs and sports, but both students decided it was worth making time for the cause.

While Cerio and Jukonski  technically are on different teams, both acknowledged working together with the school to host fundraising events and help each other out.

“In the end, it’s all worth it for the society,” Jukonski said.

To make a donation to Cerio’s or Jukonski’s teams, visit www.llsstudentvisionaries.org and search for “Noel Jukonski” or “Salvatore Cerio.” Donations can only be made between Feb. 2- March 23.

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