Meet Irelynn! She is 11 years old and was recently crowned Miss Pre-Teen Connecticut. Her platform for pageants is pancreatic cancer and she has been raising awareness for NORD’s member organization, Pancreatic Cancer Action Networkfor about two years. We were so impressed by Irelynn’s ambition to raise awareness for this rare form of cancer.
Irelynn raises money and awareness for the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network by “having lots of bake sales”, she said. During these bake sales Irelynn provides handouts about the organization so that people can learn more about the disease. She stated that her favorite part of helping out is that she gets to talk with many different people about why they got started with the organization.
The Pancreatic Cancer Action Network’s work is close to Irelynn’s family. Both her uncle and grandfather lost their battles with pancreatic cancer. Pictured here is Irelynn and her cousin, who is also NORD’s Membership Manager, Kristen Angell. “I’m so proud of my cousin for raising awareness for pancreatic cancer and supporting an organization near and dear to our family. It means a lot because she is doing this for our family.”
“It is wonderful to have a volunteer like Irelynn so passionate about our cause at such a young age. We are grateful she has chosen us as her platform. We need the community’s support now more than ever as we work toward our goal to double pancreatic cancer survival by 2020,” stated Anne Grey, Vice President, Community Outreach and Volunteer Engagement for the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network.
We loved getting to meet Irelynn, learning about her involvement with the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network and hearing about her history with pageants.
Irelynn isn’t the only one in the family in pageants. Read our interview with her cousin, Colleen, who is in the running for Miss America this weekend!
