PERRYSBURG — Three students from Perrysburg High School who raised $119,000 for cancer research are the Student Visionaries of the Year for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society.

The philanthropic competition brings together thousands of high school students across the country from diverse backgrounds and experiences who are extraordinarily driven to reach their own personal best and, ultimately, help LLS fight blood cancer, a disease that is diagnosed every 180 seconds in the U.S. and has no current means of prevention.

Jack Bowe, 17, Bennett Geissler, 17, and Caden Geissler, 15, raised the most funds across Northwest Ohio with their Students Striving for Surviving team.

These three students ran their campaign in honor of their loved ones that had been affected by cancer. Inspired by the ground-breaking research that LLS does for blood cancer, Bowe, Bennett, and Caden made the commitment to work toward raising as much life-saving dollars in the seven-week campaign to help better the lives of blood cancer patients all over Northwest Ohio and across the country.

They raised more than $119,000.

In 2023, 11 teams representing 11 schools in Northwest Ohio, and their 200 team members raised a record-breaking $440,000.

This year’s runner-up was team LLifeSavers, led by Jayan Fernandes, from St. Francis de Sales, and Anna Harms and Kylee Quicker, from St. Ursula Academy. They raised more than $90,000.

Student Visionaries of the Year has helped LLS invest more than $1.6 billion in cutting-edge research worldwide, fueling nearly every critical advancement in blood cancer treatment that spans the most promising cancer research.

New this year, each candidate team chose an LLS Mission Pillar to represent and bring awareness to throughout their seven-week campaign. These three pillars, Research, Patient Support and Advocacy, make up the very core of what LLS does.

The 2023 Mission Award recipients were:

• Research Award: Jack Bowe, 17, Perrysburg High School

• Patient Support Award: McKenna Morey, 17, Van Buren High School