BY DARRELL HALEN

The sales of pink bracelets and freshly baked cookies during a school fundraiser may not bring in a lot of money, but for Taryn Kayo it’s a way to support the fight against *** cancer – a disease that struck her grandmother nine years ago.

“It’s a serious issue for me,” said Taryn, 16, a member of the Future Business Leaders of America chapter at Pelham High School. “I want people to understand it’s a serious thing.”

During lunch periods in the school cafeteria on Tuesday, Oct. 9, and Thursday, Oct. 11, FBLA members are selling chocolate cookies with pink candy-coated pieces for 50 cents each, and pink bracelets for $1 each.

The FBLA chapter sells chocolate chip cookies yearlong to support club activities. But this two-day special fundraiser is part of a program by Otis Spunkmeyer, the chapter’s cookie dough supplier, to support the National *** Cancer Foundation.

“It makes me feel like I’m doing my part,” said Taryn, who is co-chairing the fundraiser with fellow junior Ellisse Goss.

When the company asked business teacher Wendy Dorval, the chapter’s adviser, if the club wanted to get involved in its pink cookies fundraising program, she took the idea to the students.

She was pleasantly surprised when they embraced it.

“I thought the club wouldn’t be interested,” Dorval said. “It’s an older person’s issue and these are teenagers. In reality, they are all affected because of their extended families.”

Like Catherine Byron, an 18-year-old senior, whose grandmother has *** cancer and whose former color guard coach was diagnosed with it, too.

And freshman Frank Santangelo, 14, whose mother was diagnosed last year. She went through chemotherapy, temporarily lost her hair and is now cancer-free, he said.

October is *** Cancer Awareness Month. The students are selling their goods at tables covered with pink table covers. Cookies are served on pink napkins.

“I’m hoping people will think pink and know this is serious,” Byron said.

The bracelets each feature one of four inspirational words: Faith. Hope. Strength. Survivor.

Students who purchase a cookie or bracelet receive a free pink ribbon.

“I like supporting good causes like this,” said Christine Downs, 16, after she bought a cookie.

To Taryn, her grandmother, Jackie Lampert of Salem, is a hero. She was diagnosed in 1998, and learned the cancer had spread six years later.

“She’s been fighting through (this),” Taryn said. “She’s a tough one. She can get through with a smile.”