Ethan Brown and Andrew Minkin, seniors at The McDonogh School, took the initiative to create Textbooks For the Cure, a foundation that collects textbook donations for Karma For Cara and the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. As Lema J also donates 100% of their profits to Karma For Cara, we’d like to highlight the amazing work Ethan and Andrew are doing for a cause that is dear to our hearts. Here’s a little background on what these incredible McDonogh students are doing.

Tell us a little about Textbooks for the Cure:
“Textbooks for the Cure is a book drive created last spring to raise money for Leukemia and Lymphoma. We are raising this money for two organizations: Karma for Cara, in memory of Cara Becker who passed away from Leukemia less than two years ago, and The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society in support of Ethan’s first cousin, Michael, who was diagnosed a year ago with Hodgkin’s Lymphoma. We wanted to support the Beckers and their foundation since they have been part of the McDonogh School family. As a friend and fellow McD squash teammate of Jake Becker, we wanted to help the foundation in any way we could. Additionally, when Ethan’s cousin Michael was diagnosed last summer, Ethan knew he wanted to make a difference somehow.

How did you come up with this awesome idea?“Having sold textbooks back to online bookstores, we knew that this would be a great way to raise funds for two worthy organizations. We realized that many families in the area have used and unwanted textbooks taking up space in their homes. We are collecting those textbooks in select locations, selling them back to online bookstores, and then donating the proceeds to K4C and the L & L Society. Also, any books we cannot sell we donate to a local “free” bookstore in Baltimore City called ‘The Book Thing.’ So far we have raised over $2600.”

What kind of difference do you hope Textbooks for the Cure will make?
“Our mission is twofold: We hope to fund research to help discover breakthrough therapies and cures for blood cancers like leukemia, lymphoma and Hodgkin’s disease. Additionally, we hope to support the wellbeing of cancer patients and their families during their time of need.”

And—most importantly– how can other people get involved?
“We realized that since McDonogh requires us to buy textbooks, inevitably many students have accumulated unused textbooks that they no longer need. We are certain other families from schools in the area also have textbooks to donate. We are able to collect and sell back many of these textbooks and put the proceeds to good use. The way that people can participate is to donate all their textbooks to “Textbooks for the Cure” and we will give 100% of the proceeds to help fight blood cancers. People can help by bringing unwanted textbooks to McDonogh School to donation boxes in Allen Building or Naylor Building. Please contactesbrown@mcdonogh.org and ajminkin@mcdonogh.org with any questions.”