Compass Self Storage Raises $100K for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society’s Children’s Initiative

Compass Self Storage has raised more than $100,000 this year for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society (LLS), particularly for its children’s initiative.

The $101,618 raised brings to more than $500,000 the amount Compass has donated over the years to LLS, including a local Ohio chapter. Compass is part of the Cleveland, Ohio-based Amsdell Companies, and now leads all Midwest fundraising teams for this year’s Leukemia Cup Regatta — sailing competitions held in communities nationwide to help raise money for LLS to fund research and treatment for lymphoma and other blood cancers.

“I can’t thank our teams enough for the time, energy and effort put forth this year to raise over $100,000 for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society,” Todd Amsdell, president of Amsdell Companies, said in a news release. “Our customers, partners and friends all made this amazing donation possible, and the best part is that it will directly fund an important initiative to help eradicate this terrible disease.”

Through its Children’s Initiative: Cures and Care for Children, LLS is committed to investing $25 million over the next five years to childhood cancer research in areas such as chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy and genomics.

The effort supports investigators such as Todd Druley, MD, PhD, at Washington University, who is studying acute myeloid leukemia in children and young adults. The initiative also backs the work of Hema Dave, MD, PhD, of Children’s Research Institute, who seeks to find long-lasting Hodgkin’s lymphoma treatments with fewer side effects than conventional chemotherapy.

In addition, the initiative supports David Teachey, MD, at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, who hopes to conduct clinical trials of the treatment Darzalex (daratumumab) in children with acute lymphoblastic leukemia. Another LLS-supported scientist, Barbara Savoldo, MD, PhD, of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, seeks to heighten the benefits of CAR T-cell therapy while mitigating its negative side effects.

LLS has helped advance 43 of 49 blood cancer therapies approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration between 2017 and the beginning of 2019, according to the news release.

“It is because of the dedication and support from companies such as Compass Self Storage/Amsdell Companies that the LLS is changing the landscape of cancer with more than 300 active research projects that will save lives not someday, but today,” said Lindsay Silverstein, executive director of LLS’s Northern Ohio chapter.

Amsdell owns and operates more than 500 storage centers under various trade names in 27 states.