Blog Archives

DKMS is Driving for Donors with Pat

Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia

As you know DKMS is Driving for Donors with Pat. Well , this past Friday I got my first taste of what that really means.

"It is a very cool story how we ended up at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) today to do our marrow drive! A couple of months ago we got an email from a lady named Chris Reilly who is the mother of a little girl who is being treated at CHOP for Leukemia. Chris wanted to do something in honor of another patient from the hospital who had passed away without finding a matching marrow donor so she searched the internet and found Pat! She emailed us wanting to set up a drive and we were excited to plan one with her! CHOP is known as one of the best hospitals in the country to treat kids with a number of diseases but what interested us is how successful they are with kids with Leukemia who need transplants. We had been trying to find someone at CHOP to do a drive with us since last year with no luck! It is really hard to get to the right person at a hospital or business in order to plan a drive and we really count on "insiders" to help us!" From the Driving for Donors Blog written by Claudine Andrews

While Claudine and I had spoken previously on the phone and I met her once in person , this drive was a much different experience all together.

To start it off , I met Pat’s grandparents Gordon and Sharon, quite possibly the cutest grandma and grandpa ever, and so dedicated to the cause. Sharon just retired a few weeks ago and is already on the RV recruiting marrow donors in Pat’s honor. And Gordon’s "hats off’ gesture will have a smile on your face all day. And their dog is the sweetest thing and practically begs you to rub her tummy. Gordon and Sharon are the swift kick in the butt that gets people motivated to register. And they make sure the RV is well stocked with both regular and Diet Coke!

Claudine came next. Most moms would have just shrugged off their child’s idea to drive cross country and register people as marrow donors while living in an RV. Not Claudine. She drove up to CHOP in the middle of a huge rainstorm with her youngest son Tucker in tow, disregarded her soaking wet jeans and the fact she hadn’t had a real meal all day and jumped right into registering people. And Tucker, well he played with his cars and Claudine’s laptop, you barely heard a peep from him all day.

What about Pat? Well I didn’t get to meet him that day but he will be in NYC on Wednesday when he is registering donors at Medgar Evers College with the rest of the Driving for Donors gang/family.

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DKMS rings the closing bell at NASDAQ

Mario Cantone and Katharina Harf preside over the closing bell

DKMS had a late opening the day after the gala and much to our surprise and invitation to ring the closing bell for the NASDAQ on Friday May 9th, 2008!

We were so excited to be invited and even more so once we got there and saw this

Somehow that made it seem so official!

Once we got there we all made sure to take pictures(which you can find on Flickr) and really take in how important this event was. Not only did we receive the honor of ringing the closing bell, we got to do so with Mario Cantone who hosted our event. Both he and Katharina Harf, Executive Vice President of DKMS Americas gave a call to action speech about the need for marrow donors which was projected on the NASDAQ screen in Times Square.

Last week was by far the most eventful week we have had yet and I can only assume that things will just continue to go up from here.

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Linked Against Leukemia

2nd annual Gala to Benefit DKMS Americas

It was a moment two years in the making. Kenzie Grant met Magda Boysen, her life saving marrow donor.

It was such an important moment not only for me but for the hundreds of people that night who witnessed a miracle. This little girl would not have been there if it wasn't for Magda, a women from a small town in Germany who decided six years ago to commit herself to the marrow registry. Because a stranger made one small decision six years ago, a family's life was saved.

I knew it would be an emotional moment but I don't think I was prepared to watch this little girl change people. She was able to touch so many lives that night. In that one moment. I hope that when she grows up(and she will thanks to Magda)she looks back on this moment and knows that she is such an important person to everyone who was in that room that night.

In the words of Mario Cantone, last night's MC "GO GET SWABBED B*TCHES!"

To enjoy more pictures from the Linked against Leukemia Gala, benefitting DKMS Americas head over to our Flickr page.

DKMS and Howcast Team Up to Show You How To Register To Donate Marrow

Sign up as a marrow donor today!

Have you ever wondered how to boil the perfect egg? Or, how to tie a tie? Or, how to register and donate your marrow?

Our friends over at Howcast certainly have. Howcast.com is a brand new online video site showing how-to videos you'll actually want to watch. We here at DKMS liked their style, so we teamed up with Howcast to shoot two very fun yet very informative how-to videos showing folks How To Register To Donate Bone Marrow and How To Donate Bone Marrow.

While these videos officially go live tomorrow (in time for our fundraising Gala), I couldn’t help giving you a sneak preview of them today...

Check them out and spread the word: email these videos to your friends and family. Its easy to do, just click the envelope button on the player below, enter in a few email addresses, add a quick note and hit Send. Of course, if you haven't already done so, .

How To Register To Donate Bone Marrow

How To Donate Bone Marrow

If you like what see, be sure to visit Howcast.com and let them show you how to do almost anything.

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Christine Guest Blogs

Christine, our intern from NYU

Hello There,
My name is Christine Johnson and I am just about to complete my first year at NYU. Last semester, my good friend Chere See, an international student from Singapore, started a DKMS club at NYU. In her senior year of high school, she helped organize a donor drive that registered over one thousand people in Singapore’s national registry. So, when she came to NYU, she wanted to continue here what she had started overseas. When I saw her passion, I could not resist joining the new club. We are small (but mighty!), and we work closely with DKMS Americas. On February 8th, DKMS @ NYU held its first donor drive in Goddard Residence Hall where we registered 54 students. Since then, we have held drives at Brittany and at 3rd North Residence Halls. Total, the club has helped register 131 students and we hope to up that number next year! Recognizing that it costs DKMS $65 to register each donor, we also wanted to start fundraising. We got our hands on some really cool new NYU sweatshirts (three different kinds) and began selling them at drives and other NYU events for 40% off of the bookstore price. We have raised almost $300 so far.

I met Ellie and Maria at the first donor drive. Ellie let me watch ‘How I Met Your Mother’ on her iPod, and I knew then that this organization was pretty awesome. About a week later, DKMS sent out a Facebook message asking for an intern. I couldn’t turn down the chance to work with such amiable people. So, I interviewed and got the job. I am now a Consultant with DKMS Americas. My responsibilities run the gamut, and I do everything from assembling registration kits to helping at donor drives to guest blogging. I love working here and getting the chance to be a part of an organization whose mission it is to save lives everyday!

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