Cancer research at the Commonwealth Medical College is funded by bookmarks.
What started as the idea of making and selling colorful strips of old greeting cards has ended in a $20,000 donation to the college.
George Clause, who graduated from Wallenpaupack Area High School in June, recently saw his donation being used. Database and Web servers were purchased for the college's computational biology laboratory and help researchers find information about a disease at the molecular level.
"It was jaw-dropping," the 18-year-old Newfoundland resident said. "It benefits thousands of people."
To get there, Mr. Clause made and sold thousands of bookmarks.
The summer before his freshman year of high school, a family friend died from lung cancer.
"It sparked the idea of giving back to the community and to cancer research," Mr. Clause said.
Having to decide on a senior project, and during a discussion with his mom, Tammy Clause, he glanced down to a nearby book. "Bookmarkers for a Cause" was born.
Soon, he was soliciting greeting cards from family and friends. People, even strangers, dropped off thousands of cards. After cutting, stamping and laminating the strips, he sold them at more than 30 locations in Wayne, Pike and Monroe counties.
Mr. Clause is unsure of how many bookmarks he actually sold, because he only asked for a donation. As donations started to add up, Mr. Clause looked for somewhere to donate it.
"Everyone was willing to give to the cause," he said. "I really wanted 100 percent of the proceeds to go to cancer research."
As he researched some larger organizations, he learned only a small percentage of total donations go to research. Officials at the medical college guaranteed 100 percent would be used for the cause.
"We made sure it was put to the best use," said William McLaughlin, Ph.D., assistant professor of computational biology. "Because of this, we are able to service both the community inside TCMC and host a resource for the greater biomedical community. ... We knew that given those funds, it could reach a lot of people."
As Mr. Clause prepares to start his freshman year at Ithaca College with the goal of going to medical school, the sale of bookmarks has ended. But as he leaves for New York, he knows cancer research at the medical college will be helped with his donation.
"It's amazing," he said.
Contact the writer: shofius@timesshamrock.com, @HofiusHallTT on Twitter
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