Chipping in: Putnam City students help fund OMRF research

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OKLAHOMA CITY – The Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation has $103,000 more for cancer research. The nonprofit organization relies on a 40-year-old partnership with schoolchildren to raise money to fight a deadly disease.

Researcher Linda Thompson’s endowed position at the OMRF is financed partially by the annual fundraiser. The endowment is a good way to invest the money, and the interest earned provides stability as federal research dollars dwindle, she said.

The National Institutes of Health provides grant money for the kind of basic cancer research Thompson does. As Congress cuts funding to the NIH, however, grants have become more difficult to obtain. Thompson is less likely to delay research that hasn’t yet been funded by pharmaceutical companies when she can rely on a consistent revenue source, she said.

Thompson said she’s grateful for the support the Putnam City School District has provided over the years. The district raised about $3.1 million in 40 years for the Putnam City Schools Distinguished Chair in Cancer Research position.

The district’s students learn about science and about community service, Superintendent Fred Rhodes said. His students must do more than just study and make good grades in order to develop into well-rounded adults, he said. So the school district provides opportunities for children to interact with the community and to give back.

They use jog-a-thons and other donations to raise the money.

Former Putnam City schoolteacher Lois Thomas began the campaign four decades ago, when several of her colleagues died of cancer within one year. The program was in part inspired by President Franklin Roosevelt encouraging the nation to give money to polio research, Rhodes said.

Scientists from the OMRF visit the school that raises the most money for an open house, conducting experiments and interacting with students and parents. That could encourage students to pursue science as a career, Rhodes said.

“We know there are many people in the medical profession who are retiring and there is a need for more scientists,” he said.