Gift of Life Bone Marrow Foundation Helps Save Lives…One Check Swab at a Time!

Nate Handley
Boca Raton, FL- College students are notorious for giving back to their communities- on and off campus. The impact of college student volunteerism on the community and the volunteers themselves is tremendous. Volunteering gives students a sense of pride in their campus and communities, an intrinsic reward of helping someone in need, and the ability to have a direct positive impact on the communities in which they study, work, play, and live.
According to the Corporation for National & Community Service, since September 2001, the overall percentage of college students who volunteer has increased from 27.1 percent to 30.2 percent. Many of these college student volunteers will search the internet or local campus resources for an organization to devote their volunteer time, energy, and passions to.
One such organization in need of college student volunteers is Gift of Life Bone Marrow Foundation. Headquartered in Boca Raton, Florida, Gift of Life is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization dedicated to matching bone marrow and stem cell donors with patients suffering from leukemia, lymphoma, and other life threatening diseases. College student volunteers are needed to facilitate and run donor drives to help swab potential donors interested in being entered into the worldwide registry, ensure that consent forms are properly signed by all potential donors, and are responsible for the return of all donor materials to Gift of Life. To be entered into the worldwide registry as a potential “miracle match” for another, all a potential donor has to do is provide 4 Q-tip swabs from the inside of his/her cheek.
“Running a drive is actually quite simple…all a student volunteer needs to do is figure out a date, time, and location for the drive, and Gift of Life will send the volunteer all of the supplies necessary and will even provide a 15-30 minute training session with the volunteer(s) to ensure that the volunteer(s) is/are comfortable and ready for the drive,” states Recruitment Coordinator Bridget Linnabery. Linnabery goes on by saying that “Gift of Life serves a worthy purpose in that we help facilitate finding a match for anyone, anytime, and anywhere.”
Donor drives are held all over the country at hundreds of different locales- mostly on college campuses. “College campuses have historically been wonderful locations to hold donor drives as we have found that those aged 18-30 are the most likely group of people to go through with an actual donation,” states Linnabery.
For more information on Gift of Life Bone Marrow Foundation, visit www.giftoflife.org or by calling 1-800-9MARROW.
Should you wish to run a donor drive on your campus, please feel free to reach out to Recruitment Coordinator Nate D. Handley, at NHandley@giftoflife.org.