APEX, N.C. – Elon University 2012 volleyball signee Megan Gravley has made the most out of her senior year at Apex High School. Not only did she lead Apex to its fourth consecutive conference championship and earn team MVP honors, she has helped raise $30,000 for The V Foundation for Cancer Research through the Peak City Gala of Hope.
The idea for the gala started as a marketing class ad-campaign project for Gravley and two of her classmates at the beginning of the school year and became a reality on Jan. 22. The original goal was to raise $10,000, however, Gravley and her friends tripled that amount after the gala that included speakers, an auction, door prizes and food. The three seniors chose The V Foundation as the beneficiary for their project because of their families ties to the Triangle business and sports communities, as well as each girl’s personal reasons for wanting to find a cure for cancer.
“Going into this project, we had no idea how much it would change our lives,” explained Gravley. “While many people came up to us and said ‘thank you’ or ‘you are changing our lives,’ we could truly turn around and say the same thing. It’s remarkable how many people have been touched by cancer, even in the slightest, and it felt amazing to be able to contribute to finding a cure.”
In March, Gravley and her classmates presented their project in Greensboro, N.C., at the 2012 North Carolina DECA Career Development Conference. They placed first in the “Learn and Earn” category and earned the right to compete at the International Career Development Conference in Salt Lake City in April against more than 12,000 national and international students and teams from all 50 states. Out of the 123 entries in their category at DECA’s ICDC, Gravley and her team placed first.
“Winning DECA nationals was very unexpected cherry on top of a project that turned into so much more than a grade in school,” described Gravley. “We got the chance to memorialize and honor people who have battled, are currently battling and have lost their fight with cancer. That feeling is something that will never be replaced by a trophy.”