Synder is nominated for Woman of the Year Campaign

What would you have missed if the last ten years of your life had never happened? This is the question local business owner and health & lifestyle strategist Kara Martin Snyder, of vital corps, is asking of herself and her community. Why? Because 10 years ago Kara lost a dear, childhood friend Patrick “Noodle” Newell to non–Hodgkin lymphoma.

“In the 3 years prior to his death, I lost two grandparents, an uncle, two aunts, a friend and my dad,” said Snyder. “But Pat’s death was the last straw for me. You expect to bury your elders; it’s the natural order of things. But Pat was my age. His diagnosis just seemed so spontaneous, so random and so scary.”

In the ten year’s since Patrick Newell’s death, Snyder has left a job that made her miserable, figured out what she wanted to do, and launched her own health and lifestyle coaching business. “If not for Pat’s death 10 years ago, I’m not sure how much longer I would have procrastinated making the big, scary, honest changes that I needed to make,” Snyder shared. “Without the last 10 years, I wouldn’t have figured out what kind of person I want to be and what sort of bright, shimmery stain that I want to leave on this revolving ball of mud.”

In honor of what would have been Patrick Newell’s 37th birthday, Snyder is trying to raise $37,000 for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. And in honor of her bravery and passion, Kara has been nominated for The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society’s Man & Woman of the Year Campaign. Each year, in communities across the country, dynamic, passionate candidates engage in a spirited competition to earn The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society’s “Man & Woman of the Year” titles by raising funds for blood cancer research.

The candidates compete in honor of children who are local blood cancer survivors, the Boy & Girl of the Year. Every dollar counts as one vote, and the titles are awarded to the man and woman with the most votes at the end of ten weeks. The top local fundraisers in the country win the national titles. To date, these dedicated leaders have helped LLS invest almost $1 billion in research to advance breakthrough therapies that are saving lives today.

This year the campaign kicks off on March 13^th and will run for ten weeks until the closing gala in Boston on May 22^nd. This is a blind fundraising completion in that none of the candidates knows how much the others have raised until the very last night. The goal of the campaign is to raise as much money as possible for blood cancer research, patient and family support, and education.

How to help:

• Thursday, May 22nd – Attend The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society Man & Woman of the Year Gala 

Know someone you would like to nominate for 2015 Woman of the year? Contact Sally Ekus at Sally@LisaEkus.com.