Project Michelle, a nationwide grassroots initiative dedicated to increasing the deficient number of minority bone marrow donor registrants in the national registry, announced today the results of its first two weeks of donor registration drives. In 81 drives across 10 cities, Project Michelle volunteers have registered over 4,000 potential donors and received online requests for over 1,500 home registration kits. They've gone a long way toward achieving the initiative's near-term goal of 15,000 new registrants in 5 weeks.
Project Michelle was formed in support of Michelle Maykin, a 26-year old acute myeloid leukemia (AML) patient facing a life-threatening, time-sensitive search for a bone marrow donor match. Hopefully, you remember Michelle from this post a couple of weeks ago. Since the initiative's launch just two weeks ago, Project Michelle has received a great deal of public support, with volunteer teams established in the San Francisco-Bay Area, Los Angeles, San Diego, New York, Chicago, Miami, Houston, Dallas, Boston, and Seattle.
This weekend, Hyphen and Chinese for Affirmative Action are collaborating with Project Michelle and the Asian American Donor Program to bring a bone marrow drive to San Francisco's Chinatown: In-N-Out: The Drive to Increase Asian American Registered Bone Marrow Donors. Here are the details:
WHAT: In-n-Out: The Drive to Increase Asian American Registered Bone Marrow DonorsOne of Project Michelle's main goals is to bring attention to the serious shortage of minority bone marrow donors. On any given day, there are over 6,000 patients who are in need of a transplant but don't have bone marrow donor matches. As a whole, only 3% of the U.S. population is registered as bone marrow donors.
WHEN: Saturday | June 14, 2008 | 10 am - 3 pm
WHERE: Chinese for Affirmative Action, Community Room
The Kuo Building
17 Walter U. Lum Place
San Francisco, CA 94108
COST: Free for all partial and full ethnic minorities (Asian and Pacific Islander, Native American, Hispanic/Chicano, and African American) and $25 registration fee for all non-minorities.
To RSVP and to show your support, please visit our Facebook Event and/or our Evite.
Joining the national donor registry is easy and painless. The process involves only a cotton swab sample of the inside of the cheeks in addition to the completion of a form. This can be done at local registration drives or conveniently at home by requesting a free kit through AADP. Donor registrations, in person or online, are free to all minorities. Please consider registering today.
