Continuing her legacy

Raised to help others, Jeff honors his mother in the most charitable way

Written by Morgan Bruns, who was a summer intern with the Editorial Content team at Park 48.

When it comes to acts of kindness, Diane Peters was an expert. She taught her children the importance of serving others throughout their childhood, and she led by example. After she lost her battle to acute myeloid leukemia (AML), her son, Jeff Peters, wanted to continue her philanthropic legacy. With a desire to commemorate his mother, Jeff initially wanted to host a golf tournament. Instead, since accepting a nomination and winning the official title of 2021 Man of the Year for the San Diego Leukemia and Lymphoma Society (LLS), he was able to raise $131,803 in honor of his mother in a 10 week timeframe.

“Anything I can do to positively impact patient care for blood cancer patients, or be an advocate for patients, or even help with research­, that all means a lot to me and to hundreds of thousands of families across the world too.”

Jeff, Diane, and Chantel Peters

Jeff started at Cook in 2014 as an Endoscopy district manager for the San Diego territory. Jeff worked in this position for six years before he was promoted to Market Development manager and continued working the same territory, as well as southern California, Arizona, New Mexico, and parts of west Texas, too. Outside of work, he has been actively fundraising for LLS through a variety of events.

When his mother was diagnosed with AML, Jeff and his wife, Chantel Peters, reached out to a friend who worked for LLS in search of resources and advice for handling a cancer diagnosis. Through LLS, Diane was introduced to another AML patient who was on his third stem cell transplant. Once she befriended him, the two would encourage and check in on each other daily.

“LLS was always a resource we had throughout the little over a year of my mom’s treatment,” Jeff said.

How it started

Diane unfortunately lost her battle to AML in 2020.

“After she passed, a few months went by, and my brother and I were talking about maybe there’s something we can do to bring awareness to this cause and honor our mother because she was by far the most charitable person we knew,” Jeff said.

Throughout his childhood, the family would deliver warm meals to elderly citizens in the community who were unable to make their own, adopt underprivileged families over Christmas and provide them with gifts and a tree, and have local Marines from Camp Pendleton over for Thanksgiving dinner.

Because LLS was such a consistent resource for the family during these difficult times, Jeff initially wanted to raise money for LLS’s cause and honor his mother through a golf tournament. Although LLS was appreciative of this willingness to fundraise for their mission, they suggested that Man of the Year would be the best way to make the impact he was looking for. After turning down the nomination and trying to move forward with the golf tournament, LLS invited Jeff to a Zoom presentation with past candidates and people affected by cancer. In early February of this year, Jeff signed his letter of acceptance and has been hosting numerous fundraising events since.

“Everyone wants to help”

Jeff had his first event just eight hours after signing. He joined his friends’ company’s morning team huddle on Zoom. Occasionally, when there are work anniversaries or employee birthdays, they will have a trivia game. For Jeff’s friends’ birthday, he chose to do a trivia event where people can actively donate to LLS. Just 12 minutes after Jeff introduced himself and explained what he was fundraising for, they had already raised $1,000. The company also graciously did a $1,000 match. Jeff was off to a good start for his first day of campaigning.

On April 19, in honor of his mother’s birthday, Jeff had a fundraiser in the backyard of his parents’ house. People from the community came together to donate food, drinks, desserts, and auction items. One of the auction items was a two-night trip to the Sonoma Coast State Park in northern California. Between donations and auction bidding, Jeff was $5,500 closer to his goal.

He then teamed up with Mountain Mike’s Pizza, a popular west coast restaurant. Because of his personal connection with the Mountain Mike’s owner, he was able to host another fundraiser there. The restaurant also donated 30% of sales that night back to the campaign. Many of the people who showed up for the event were from the elementary school and school district in which Diane had worked.

Other fundraisers included hosting a Don’t Tell Comedy show in San Diego that had both a live and virtual audience, which sold more than $2,000 worth of tickets total. He also partnered with surrounding restaurants in Pacific Beach, San Diego, which donated a portion of their sales back to LLS.

Finally, the most recent fundraiser was called Meet the Wine Maker. Jeff has a friend who owns a winery in northern California, as well as a friend who owns a restaurant in San Diego. Through these relationships, Jeff was able to have food, wine, staff, and a venue space donated for this event. People were able to try different varieties of wine, eat tray-pass food, and participate in an auction.

“The response has been incredible. Everyone wants to help,” Jeff said. “I don’t know if it’s just with the crazy world we’ve been in the last year, or couple of years, but I have a feeling that people want to do and see something positive.”

The overall goal: a positive impact

As of June 2, Jeff had raised $98,631. Additionally, for his final fundraising efforts, he hosted a virtual auction and practiced more grassroots fundraising to help him to surpass his goal of $100,000. After 10 weeks of hardwork, Jeff raised $131,803. He gives all the credit for his fundraising success to his mother.

“I’m just sending out letters, and phone calls, and emails or text messages, and setting up events,” he said. “People are supporting, and donating, and coming to these events because of her. It’s been very fulfilling to see the impact she’s made and see everyone go to support her.”

With the end in sight, Jeff’s main goal is to make an overall positive impact and help blood cancer patients. By supporting LLS, he’s funding medications and treatments that can not only lead to a cure but can prolong life until then.

“It may not be a lot in the grand scheme of things,” he said.” But if my mom was around for another 12 months, she would have seen me get married. She would’ve seen my sister get married and also find out that my sister is pregnant. There’s just a lot of things that can happen if life is extended in some sort of way.”

Jeff also extended his gratitude to his Cook colleagues who’ve supported him in this journey. At first, he was hesitant to reach out to his Cook family because he didn’t want them to feel pressured or obligated in the work atmosphere. However, once Cook employees saw his campaign circulate through social media, they began to reach out and donate. This was when Jeff realized that they were not only happy to support him, but to support a cause that is important to them, too. He saw an outreach of Cook employees who have been affected by blood cancer, and this gave them the opportunity to give back and support an organization whose mission is to cure it.

From Jeff to his Cook family: “Thank you, from the bottom of my heart.”

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