500 donors added to "Be The Match"
Students and community members helped to add 500 new donors to the Michigan Blood Be the Match registry over the course of several registry events held on and off campus.
Held in honor of Derrick Nash, a Central Michigan University football player who has been experiencing a relapse of acute lymphoblastic leukemia, Be the Match registry events took place on campus and in Nash's hometown of Saginaw over the last week.
Nash is in need of a bone marrow transplant, and so far does not a have a match within Michigan Blood's marrow registry.
The drives held on CMU's campus alone brought in a total of 387 new donors to the registry. Marrow Recruitment Specialist Katie McClain said that number will have a significant effect on those waiting for matches.
"About one in 500 people go on to donate, so adding 200 to 300 means at least one if not a few people from this event have the chance to go on to donate," she said. "Young donors are selected more often, so I feel really confident that someone, if not a few donors, are going to come out of this."
The first local registry event, held outside the Kelly/Shorts Football Stadium prior to last Saturday's game, attracted 23 Caucasian and 6 minority donors to the registry. The event held in Saginaw added 25 Caucasian and 54 minority donors and the events held across campus last Thursday came to a close with 263 Caucasian and 124 minority donors.
An online drive was also available and added four Caucasian and one minority donor to the registry.
Stefanie Digiandomenico is a second year medical student who volunteered to help run the registry table set up in the Health Professions building on Thursday, and said she had been involved with registry drives since last year and jumped at the chance to bring another one to campus.
"This is such a foreign topic for so many people," Digiandomenico said. "Most people come thinking it's something that's really painful. They're interested in it because they know Derrick and they know what's going on."
Other tables on Thursday's on-campus drive were set up in the East Campus residence Halls, the Charles V. Park Library and the Student Activity Center.
Saline freshman Andrew Butcko was among the many to register for Be the Match at the library table, and said he had not heard about Derrick or the registry drive until he stopped to talk to the football players who were volunteering at the table.
"I had no idea. I just stopped to say good luck to the football players for this weekend and to go and kick some butt against Western, and they told me what they were doing here," Butcko said. "They told me his situation and they told me it was his second time having it, and I just thought that was terrible and I really just wanted to stop and see if I could do something. I think it's great that they have so many people here who are willing to stop and take time to fill this out and hopefully help him."
Sophomore Michael Steinhauer and freshman Clayton Walderzak, both CMU football players, were stationed at as registry table helped attract potential donors by stopping passersby and educating them on Nash's situation and the drive itself.
"Some people know what's going on just from hearing it through the community and the college," Walderzak said. "It's really great. It truly means a lot. It could save his life and it shows how supportive (the students) are."
Several members of the football team hosted their own registry table in the Student Activity Center after the others on campus had closed on Thursday. Members of the team, passersby and members of CMU Athletics added their names to the registry as well.
At this point, McClain said she and her partner from Michigan Blood had nearly run out of swab kits for people to register with. Kits will be mailed home to people who filled out a form to register but were not able to give a swab sample.
"We brought close to 300 kits and we're almost out," McClain said. "It's been a very good day. We had a lot of support at every location."
