by Cassie Mattia

Loveland, Ohio – Team CUREage 2.0 for the victory! Although Loveland High School (LHS) students, Carly Wilhoite, Bella Dillhoff, and Morgan Wheeler did not win the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society’s (LLS) annual “Students Of The Year” campaign, which raises funds and awareness for blood cancer research, their group appropriately named “Team CUREage 2.0” still managed to raise $94,908!

“One of the most important things I learned throughout this is to not be afraid of No and actually become used to it,” said Bella Dillhoff, “You have to get through a bunch of No’s just to get one Yes. We’d like to thank everyone who supported our campaign by going to various events and donating to our page. But most of all thank you to our moms who kept pushing us not to stop,” Dillhoff added.

Within the Cincinnati area the “Students of the Year” campaign, which was comprised of 12 teams, managed to raise $624,841 for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. In addition to the thousands of dollars, Team CUREage 2.0 was able to raise, LHS’s Ellie Carr was selected to be a part of the LLS 5k Club. Team CUREage 2.0 was also able to complete the LLS 50-state challenge by getting a minimum of $25 donated to the cause by each of the 50 states. Bella Dillhoff was also recognized by being selected to receive the LLS Community Involvement Award because she was able to get the ENTIRE community of Loveland involved in the Students of the Year campaign.

Team CUREage 2.0 team member, Carly Wilhoite had a lot to say about how gracious everyone in the community was in regards to their donations to the cause.

“Thank you to all of my teammates for all your hard work on getting donations, thank you to all of the local restaurants that graciously teamed up with us to plan Fund-the-Nights, and thank you to those who sponsored our t-shirt sales,” Willhoite said, “The biggest thank you goes to our moms for being so supportive and helping us through the whole process.”

Morgan Wheeler, another Team CUREage 2.0 team member said that the Bourbon Raffle and “Brewery Nights” were the two events that enabled them to raise the most donations. Some of the other successful donation outlets were Split The Pot, the Gift Basket Raffles, T-Shirt Sales, and the Team CUREage 2.0 Dodgeball Tournament.

Wheeler briefly reminisced on the night of the finale of the Students of the Year campaign and how truly nervous she was about the results.

“The night of the finale, I was definitely nervous but almost like a calm nervous. At that point, I didn’t really care about winning the competition, I was simply just proud of us for raising an insane amount of money,” Wheeler said, “I am a naturally competitive person, and winning usually is the goal for me, but our campaign almost realigned my priorities. Winning didn’t matter, as long as we could save a life. Thank you to our community, this was not just an LLS Students of the Year campaign, it was an LLS Community of the Year campaign!”

When asked about the finale of the Students of the Year campaign Carly Wilhoite shared that a special memory she will hold close to her heart from that night is “the dance party” everyone participated in!

Congratulations to Team CUREage 2.0! We are so proud of all of you for everything you have done for the community and those fighting Leukemia and Lymphoma. Keep on being the amazing citizens you are. We look forward to seeing what the future holds for all of you. Check out another article on the unstoppable Team CUREage 2.0 below!

For more of the Loveland Salad With Me, Cassie Mattia, stay tuned!