Islanders' Lee continues charitable efforts with latest Kan Jam event

SYOSSET, N.Y. -- Anders Lee was not going to decline a sun-splashed late-spring morning at a suburban high school in an affluent Long Island community.

Not when he was invited to surprise and delight kids who set the highest total for a Kancer Jam community fundraising event since the Jam Kancer in the Kan Foundation was established in 2014.

"I wasn't missing this," Lee said.

The initial goal was modest: $25,000 through either raising or donating a minimum of $500. By the time 11th- and 12th-grade students from Community Health and Peers As Leaders classes, and volunteers from Grade 10, gathered on the football field for the first Syosset High School "Kancer Jam" on Wednesday, they raised $56,902 toward an elevated goal of $60,000 for the Fenov Scholar program spearheaded by the New York Islanders captain.

Lee was moved watching 96 kids divided into 48 teams and groups of four play a tournament where one competitor tosses a disc toward a can and their partner tries to deflect it in to score points. Many in this age group at this time of year are thinking about the prom, vacation and applying for college. These students were committed to philanthropy simply because they wanted to.

"All the efforts that they put in and the money that they've raised, (close to) $60,000, it's incredible," Lee said. "They took this on as a little community service project and they completely ran with it, so they deserve to come out and skip class for a few hours."

Lee has been a Jambassador since 2016, when while recovering from a broken fibula that ended the forward's season he was moved by a speech on YouTube from Fenov Pierre-Louis, a 16-year-old battling Stage 4 neuroblastoma since the age of 9. Lee soon bonded with Pierre-Louis and worked with the Jam Kancer in the Kan Foundation to raise funds for families affected by a cancer diagnosis.

Pierre-Louis died July 18, 2018. Lee founded the Fenov Memorial Scholarship that awards $2,000 annually to up to five graduating high school seniors who have provided help and sympathy to someone with cancer. One student body elevated Kancer Jam to another level.

"The fact that it's on this turf right now at our school and all the students that I'm teaching is pretty amazing, to be honest," 11th-grade Community Health teacher Matthew Ring said. "For them to kind of step out of their comfort zone and stay away from technology and video games and anything else they might have wanted to do in their free time to really focus on this is something that's just incredible."

These are kids, thought Jamey Crimmins, when Ring reached out to pitch the idea. The founder of Jam Kancer In The Kan expected about $25,000, maybe $30,000. Ring said each team intended to raise at least $500.

"That got our attention," Crimmins said.

Students reached $10,000 the first week. There was never an external reward, but intrinsic motivation, a drive to engage in a behavior for inherent satisfaction.

"The fact that they then want to do something about it to help others, this is music to our ears," Crimmins said. "This gives us hope for our next generation of Jammers. What is of equal importance to the money is the fact that these kids can now walk away with the sense of, 'Wait, I can do something.' They become collective. 
They become communal and we can join. That's the takeaway. This will multiply and other high schools are going to see this."

Lee and his wife, Grace, with help from a committee, annually review Fenov Scholar program applicants, which remain open through 5 p.m. ET on Monday. Lee won the 2024 King Clancy Trophy voted as the player who best illustrates leadership on and off the ice while making a noteworthy humanitarian contribution. He holds Jam Kancer in the Kan charity events on Long Island. Anyone he meets, he promises to stay in touch, and it's not one and done.

Ask James McPhail, whose 6-year-old son, John, was diagnosed with Juvenile Pilocytic Astrocytoma that makes up about 15-25 percent of brain tumors seen in children. John has been cancer free for five years and arrived bearing gifts: Five Hot Wheels cars, one each for Lee, "Miss Grace" and their three kids.

"Better human than he is an athlete," McPhail said. "When all else felt hopeless, he was behind us and he showed up when we needed him most. He became part of our village. He wasn't an outsider trying to just come in. He became part of our village and to this day they've maintained an amazing relationship.

"Just blessed that somebody cared enough to reach out to us to help us and got us through a time where, to be honest, without them, probably would have been struggling to pay rent and bills and buy food, and there was going to be no Christmas. And because of them, there was. You can't put that into words."

Lee then commanded the students' attention yet again. They ended the tournament inspired by his words and deeds, these 96 kids who devoted hours of the formative stages of their lives for nothing in return. It was worthwhile, every bit of it. 

"Let's have a day," Lee said.

Click here to learn more about and donate to Jam Kancer in the Kan.