BAY VIEW ACADEMY STUDENT-ATHLETE DONATES HER $2,500 SCHOLARSHIP PRIZE TO ANOTHER STUDENT
??Holly and Dakota Grenier – Dakota and her mother, Holly, at the 2015 Bay View Mother Daughter Brunch Photo Credit: Chestnut Hill Studios
East Providence, RI ??? Dakota Grenier (Coventry, RI), a senior at Bay View Academy, didn???t enter into the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society???s Student of the Year competition to build her resume for college applications – she had already signed her Letter of Intent to row at the University of Rhode Island. And she didn???t do it for the potential scholarship prize ($5,000) given to the winner. Dakota wanted to raise money to ???knock out cancer,??? because for her it???s personal. Her mother is a survivor of Stage 4 Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma.
??This Tuesday, March 15th, Carla Mulhern, Campaign Manager for Man & Woman of the Year and the Student of the Year Campaign at The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, congratulated Dakota on her fundraising efforts in front of the Bay View community. Dakota narrowly missed being the top fundraiser in the competition (she came in 2nd with a grand total of $34,668.22 raised in six weeks). However, she was given the Mission Award for most closely living the mission of the LLS, to ???cure leukemia, lymphoma, Hodgkin’s disease and myeloma, and improve the quality of life of patients and their families.???
??Drea Harms, Dakota Grenier and Carla Mulhern ??– Dakota receives a check denoting her fundraising total on March 15th at Bay View Academy Photo Credit: Chestnut Hill Studios
With the Mission Award came a $2,500 scholarship prize. At the LLS Student of the Year Awards Ceremony on Saturday, February 27th, Dakota stood up to receive her award and announced instead that she???d be giving it away. She???d recently learned of a high school student in West Warwick battling leukemia and Dakota is donating the scholarship funds to that student???s college education fund.
??Dakota was joined in the whirlwind fundraising efforts by a team of Bay View and Bishop Hendricken students, as well as a hometown friend from Coventry, RI. As Dakota wasn???t motivated by the potential scholarship prize and says she couldn???t have raised the money without the support of her team, she told them in advance that any scholarship prize she won she would split evenly among the team members. However, the night of the Awards dinner she told the team that she would be donating her portion of any scholarship prize money to the West Warwick student and the rest of the team signed on to do the same.
Team Dakota Left to right – back row: Haley Lecomte, Matt Sweeney, Dakota Grenier, Matt Ricci, Mikaela Lee Front row: Anne Madeiros, Sarah Underwood, Alexia Mattos, Sabryna Nobrega (Jenna Costantino absent from photo) Photo Credit: Submitted by Dakota Grenier
??Dakota is what you might call, ???a force to be reckoned with.??? She???s not only the Student Council President, but also on the Rowing and Basketball teams and is a member of the Athletic Leadership Group. She is a Peer Minister, School Ambassador, and a member of the Mu Alpha Theta Mathematics Honor Society and the National Honor Society. And, she gives her all to every sport, club and society. In order to tackle the fundraising challenge for the Student of the Year competition, Dakota surrounded herself with a team of supporters, including Bay View History and Social Sciences Teacher, Nicole Buco (Warwick, RI), and Bay View School Counselor, Drea Harms (Plainville, MA). She was joined by six Bay View students: Jenna Costantino (Warwick, RI), Haley Lecomte (West Greenwich, RI), Mikaela Lee (North Scituate, RI), Anne Madeiros (Carolina, RI), Alexia Mattos (Saunderstown, RI), and Sarah Underwood (East Providence, RI). Plus, two Bishop Hendricken students agreed to lend a hand. They are Matthew Ricci (Coventry, RI) and Matthew Sweeney (Cranston, RI). Additionally, a hometown friend, Sabryna Nobrega (Coventry, RI), joined #TeamDakota.
Working with Bay View???s Administration, Dakota and her team held a variety of fundraising events and opportunities, including a t-shirt sale, dress down days, a mixer with DJ Jessica from 92 Pro FM, a dodgeball competition and a comedy night. With the support of the administration, Dakota mailed a letter to every Bay View family, as well as personal family and friends, in order to garner support for LLS. The Lower and Middle Schools joined the cause by holding a bake sale for her campaign.
??Dakota???s efforts to contribute to the fight against cancer were varied leading up to the competition for LLS. In the past, she held a bake sale to benefit the American Cancer Society and last summer she volunteered at Camp Dotty, a week-long camp for oncology patients and their siblings, put on by the Tomorrow Fund at Hasbro Children’s Hospital. Over the course of the camp week, Dakota grew extremely close to one of her campers: a little boy who won his battle against leukemia. He inspired Dakota to donate 12 inches of her hair to make wigs for women battling cancer.
??Dakota aimed to honor her mom and her campers from Camp Dotty by participating in the Student of the Year competition. She is continuing her mission even after the official six-week fundraising contest has ended. Dakota is presently interning with The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society and helping Carla Mulhern with the Man & Woman of the Year fundraising contest. She will begin at the University of Rhode Island in the fall and plans to study nursing. Her goal is for be a nurse practitioner with a focus in pediatric oncology.
?????Words cannot express how grateful I am for the overwhelming support from my peers, school and community,??? Dakota said. ???With every dollar we fundraise, we are one step closer to finding a cure.???
??For more information on Dakota???s campaign and to read her essay, ???Battle Bun,??? visit her LLS Fundraising site at
http://events.lls.org/pages/ri/2016SOYRI/dgrenier??
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