Medical-Research Groups Court High-School Students as Donors

Some high schools are raising tens and hundreds of thousands of dollars a year to give to medical causes, reports The Wall Street Journal.

While students previously raised money to pass on to national groups such as the March of Dimes and Easter Seals, the newspaper says, now many student groups want to support research and other efforts that benefit people in their hometowns.

High schools such as the affluent Highland Park High School, in Illinois, are being courted by grant seekers due to the large amounts of money they raise. Last year, students at the school raised $180,000, an amount matched by an anonymous donor. Students then chose to give the money to a research organization created by a local family affected by Huntington’s disease, a genetic disorder.

Students in Northport, N.Y., raised $250,000 to fight ALS, commonly known as Lou Gehrig’s disease, and a New Jersey high school raised more than $30,000 for the Children’s Tumor Foundation.