Livingston High School students Addai and Aya Tabak took part in the high school leadership program with the Leukemia and Lymphona Society (LLS). The siblings, named as two of the team’s three Visionary of the Year candidates, led Team Blood Busters and raised $41,000 in just seven weeks.
“The goal is to raise as much money as you can for blood cancer causes,” Addai said. “There are different pillars. There’s research, patient, and advocacy pillars.” Team Blood Busters focused on raising money for the research pillar at LLS.
Raisings Funds
In order for the siblings to be chosen as representatives for Team Blood Busters, they had to submit an application, write essays, and virtually meet with representatives from LLS. Once they were selected, they attended various sponsorship meetings and workshops.
“I had to Zoom meet with this person from the national committee, and they directed me to the state committee in New Jersey, who told me how to take over a team,”Addai said.
“The scariest meeting was with the US Navy,” saidAya. She was nervous to meet with the senior executive, but once she did so, she was successfully able to secure funding.
To raise funds, Team Blood Busters held different events throughout town, such as a paint and sip at Mixology. Various local restaurants, including Shake Shack, Panera, and Just Salad, set up special donation days where a percentage of their funds was donated to Team Blood Busters.Additionally, the Livingston Circle Car Wash donated premium car washes to a fundraising raffle.
Aya said that it was hard to gain the selfassurance to speak with these professionals at first, but their confidence grew as they continued to hold meetings.
Aya and her friends would trek throughout town, knocking on doors and keeping residents aware of Team Blood Busters and its goals.
Addai said that, through this experience, he learned a lot about speaking to people in high level companies and asking different people for their support.
The campaign lasted for only seven weeks, and Addai felt this limited time frame gave him a sense of immediacy.
“If it was going on for a year, I feel like there would be some pauses where people weren’t doing anything, but seven weeks promotes that urgency in each team member to do more,” he said.
Teams throughout northern New Jersey raised a combined $2.7 million.
Team Blood Busters
As they recruited other high schoolers to take part in Team Blood Busters, the siblings were intentional about choosing individuals who could actively help their fundraising efforts.
“We would give them ideas on how to fundraise money using their surroundings,” Aya said. She would often encourage team members to discuss LLS with their parents’ employers in hopes of a donation.
The additional members of the 2025 Team Blood Busters were Josie Plotnick, Sarah Varman, Olivia Salvagno, Dylan Blum, Rebecca Kaldsas, Nathan Adest, and Owen Burns. Team memberAnsh Nuniwal was also a candidate for Visionary of the Year.
Grand Finale Celebration
A Grand Finale Celebration was held for all North Jersey student visionaries at the Grove in Cedar Grove on Saturday, March 1.
“They presented a bunch of awards, including the research pillar awards,” Addai said. “There were other awards for top team members and things like that. This was a celebration of all our hard work and gave us the chance to see how much everyone raised.”
Prior to the Grand Finale Celebration, Addai said he was unsure about Team Blood Busters’ efforts. He was not able to compare the team’s funds against others, and feared their total would not be as impressive as other teams utilizing large corporate sponsorships.
“During the Grand Finale, I realized it’s not only about how much money we raised, since we had many events in Livingston that brought the town together,” he said. “I think that was the best thing that we took away from it.”
Future of Blood Busters
While the Tabak siblings cannot be the Student Visionaries for Team Blood Busters next year, they hope that another LHS student will take over their legacy and keep Blood Busters as a Livingston team.
“We already introduced this to local businesses so now that they know about it, they may be more willing to help next year,” said Aya.
Addai said that he would be interested in helping and advising next year’s team.
“I’d be happy to pass down all the information,” he said.
Addai andAya Tabak are shown at the Grand Finale Celebration in Cedar Grove.
