When Barbara Stivenson tried to bring flowers to the hospitalized wife of a co-worker, she found out the hospital doesn’t allow flowers in the rooms of leukemia patients.

‘I brought flowers, but when someone has leukemia, the pesticides in flowers would hurt them because you strip the immune system down to nothing,’ Stivenson said. ‘I come in with a big basket of flowers, and you can’t have that – it’s like skulls and crossbones.’

So six years ago, Stivenson became involved in promoting awareness and raising money for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society (LLS) of Central New York. She started with working on Light the Night, an annual promotion run by LLS in which different groups march downtown, holding red balloons for supporters and white balloons for survivors. The groups also pass out information during the event. Now Stivenson is in the running for the LLS of Central New York Woman of the Year Award.

‘She has been sending letters to get donations and has a Web site,’ said Kristen Duggleby, the campaign director at LLS. ‘She has been collecting auction items, and she has just been extremely accessible in her efforts.’

Stivenson sees how debilitating leukemia is, especially for children.

‘The biggest reason I do this is when I look at the faces,’ she said. ‘There is a little boy and girl of the year, they are sick with leukemia. No parents want their kids to play with kids who have cancer. That’s the kind of stuff that just kills you. I work with college kids every day and I think, ‘What happens if you had been sick and didn’t have the chance to go (to college)?”

A woman at SU was already involved with LLS and running the university’s branch of Light the Night, but there was room for improvement.

Stivenson attended the event six years ago, but only five people from SU showed up. The State University of New York Upstate Medical University had 80 people with matching T-shirts, she said.

The next year, Stivenson took over the event.

‘We got 50 shirts from Office of Student Life, and we got 30 people to go with orange on and we became connected,’ she said. ‘We began running it every year after that. It got bigger and bigger, and last year we had 300 people.’

Stivenson was nominated for Woman of the Year for her work with Light the Night. The candidates for the award all raise money in a nine-week campaign, and the man and woman who raise the most money win. In the past three years of competition, 32 candidates raised $379,000.

The campaign culminates Wednesday with a silent auction in Skaneateles, N.Y. The candidates have to bring in the auction items. Stivenson will provide an overnight at the Renaissance, dinner at the Sheraton, coffee and wine baskets and she is also looking for donations from the SU Athletics Department.

She’s raised $6,500, with $5,000 coming from Chancellor Nancy Cantor. Donations can still be made to her campaign at http://www.active.com/donate/cnymwoy05/cnyBStiven.

Stivenson is the most recent member of SU to be involved in the Man or Woman of the Year campaign. Michael Flusche, former associate vice chancellor for academic affairs and associate professor of history, won the title in 2005; Rick Wright from the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications ran in 2006; and Suzanne Thorin, head of Bird Library ran in 2007.

‘We are very lucky to have had a candidate run from SU for the last three years,’ Duggleby said. ‘She is very instrumental with the Light the Night walk and is very enthusiastic. She helps us spread the word and also has raised a great deal of funds to support our mission.’

mwwoolle@syr.edu