The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society (LLS) recently announced its Man and Woman of the Year at its campaign’s Grand Finale at the Loews Atlanta Hotel.

During the last 10 weeks or so, 14 local community leaders – four men and 10 women – have been competing with each other to raise the most money for LLS.

Victoria Slocum, creator of the website Green Plate Rule, was named the 2012 Woman of the Year.

Slocum who lives in south Forsyth County, raised $71,711 for LLS in honor of her great uncle, who lost his battle with multiple myeloma nearly two years ago.

James Beasley, Regional Manager at First Communities Management, was named the 2012 Man of the Year.

“We were pleased to recruit such an outstanding class of candidates for this campaign," said Tracy Manning, manager of the campaign at the LLS Georgia Chapter.

"While only two people are crowned the Man and Woman of the Year and we inducted 10 into the 25K for the Cure Club, we are so proud of all of our candidates because of their extraordinary job they did in making this campaign such a tremendous success. We counted on their creativity and ingenuity to raise the funds, and they performed brilliantly.”

According to LLS, every dollar the candidates raised counted as one “vote” and the candidates with the most votes were given the title Man and Woman of the Year.

The whole campaign raised $575,000.

Slocum and Beasley will now be entered into the national competition for Man and Woman of the Year named this month.

All the candidates competed in honor of LLS’s Boy and Girl of the Year, Owen and Preslie, local children who are blood cancer survivors and sources of inspiration to others.

“Man and Woman of the Year is a great opportunity for participants to network with other candidates while raising money for a great cause,” said Manning. “We applaud the tireless efforts of our incredible candidates and thank each of them for making such a significant and record setting difference in the lives of so many people.”

To learn more about the campaign, visit the Man and Woman of the Year website.