She was inspired by a school project
Image via KSLA News.
Most teenagers think they’re invincible and don’t start worrying about their health until they are much older. But 16-year-old Lynly Brennan is making a name for herself for being concerned about the health of her community. After a considerable outreach effort, Brennan raised enough money to install sunscreen dispensers at five pools in her county.
It all began during a school project on tanning beds. While doing her research, Brennan said she learned that regular sunblock wearers have a dramatically lower chance of getting skin cancer. A study by researchers at Ohio State University last year found regular use of SPF 30 sunblock cut the risk of developing melanoma — the deadliest of skin cancers — by 80%.
“What’s, like, more really valuable than talking about the sun and skin cancer?” she told KSLA News.
After learning that Boston, Massachusetts, had free public sunscreen dispensers, Brennan got to work to raise funds to bring them to her community. “I thought, if I got the funding, it would be so easy just to put them at pools,” she said.
The Nerinx Hall High School student sent fundraising 43 letters to doctors, dermatologists, pool patrons, city representatives, and health professionals, and received $1,600. “I was honestly really surprised because I’m just a high school student,” she said.
The donations were enough to install free sunscreen dispensers at five community pools in her county. “It’s great because I, like, grew up at this pool,” she told a KSLA reporter at Shaw Park Aquatic Center in Clayton, Missouri. “So seeing that I made a difference is really surprising.”
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