The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society (LLS) celebrated its 2016 Man & Woman of the Year campaign with a grand finale on June 4, 2016 at the Fairmont San Francisco! The Man & Woman of the Year campaign is an annual 10-week fundraising competition between community leaders united by one goal: to use their leadership skills to raise funds to help blood cancer patients live longer and more fulfilling lives.

The evening's event featured a silent and live auction, dinner, dancing and a program honoring the 2016 class of candidates and the 2016 Boy & Girl of the Year, Preston and Edith, who are both young, local blood cancer survivors. The event culminated in the announcement of this year's Man & Woman of the Year, Ari Kahan and Kaitlin Gallagher, the man and woman who raised the most money during the 10-week campaign!

This year's winners, Ari and Kaitlin, both have very close ties to the mission of LLS. Ari, a Vice President at Goldman Sachs, lost his father to a rare and aggressive form of acute myeloid leukemia (AML) in 2013 and surpassed his goal to raise $100,000 in honor of his father. Kaitlin, a college student at San Francisco State University, is an acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) survivor and celebrated her five year anniversary of remission this year, officially making her cured of cancer!

In addition to the Man & Woman of the Year campaign, this year's Grand Finale celebrated the greater Bay Area's inaugural Student of the Year and All Star campaign. The Student of the Year campaign is a seven-week fundraising competition between student pairs and their teams who are in competition for a $1,000 scholarship to the college or university of their choice. The All Star campaign is a national fundraising competition where select Man & Woman of the Year alumni represent their local market and compete against All Star candidates from across the country. This year's Students of the Year are Gianna DeRanieri and Julia Richardson and this year's All Star candidate representing the greater Bay Area is Larry Gerquest.

Congratulations to the 2016 Man & Woman of the Year and to all of the candidates for their hard work and achievements helping The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society find a cure for blood cancers! To learn more, visit mwoy.org/bayarea.