CCHS Senior Organizes Dana-Farber Fundraiser in Memory of Her Father

A silent auction will be held from 7:30 to 9 p.m. this Saturday, April 27 at Concord-Carlisle High School, with all of the proceeds going to the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in memory of Jeffrey Harold Lane. 

Hannah Lane, a senior at CCHS, organized the event as her senior project, as a way to honor her father, who died in 2003 after a long battle with cancer. “This is kind of my tribute,” said Lane, who was 8 when her father passed away.

Selecting Dana-Farber as the beneficiary of the fundraiser was an easy choice for Lane. That’s where her dad went for chemotherapy and other treatments, and her family has supported Dana-Farber and the Jimmy Fund through donations and participating in the Pan Mass Challenge.

To solicit auction items, Lane said she wrote a letter describing what Dana-Farber does and her experience with the organization. She circulated the letters among friends and family members, and dropped them off to stores around town – to good results.

Auction items include Red Sox tickets, a “Girls Night Out” at Potpourri Designs, a Vineyard Vines basket, a Wine and Cheese basket, gift cards to several local shops and restaurants, among other things.

In addition to the silent auction, Lane has lined up eight musical acts to perform during the fundraiser. The lineup, comprised mostly of students, includes singers, guitarists and a saxophone player.  

The silent auction fundraiser comes just over 10 years after Lane lost her father to cancer. But he’s still played a role in her senior year at CCHS, and Lane has found to be cathartic.

“I think I struggled a lot with the loss of my father,” she said. “This year, I actually wrote my college essay on my life after he passed away, and I think that helped me. I don’t know if I could have done this before this year.”

The silent auction will be held from 7:30 p.m. to 9 p.m. Saturday, April 27 at the CCHS auditorium. The $5 admission gets you in to see the auction items and listen to the music. There will also be tables with food and drinks set up outside of the auditorium.