How to Host a Bone Marrow Donor Drive

Having two boys with Shwachman-Diamond Syndrome, we are no strangers to the need for bone marrow donors. When we found out that one of our boys might need a bone marrow transplant, we immediately started planning a bone marrow donor drive. It wasn't until several weeks later that we found out how important this drive would be. We found out that he did not have a match in the registry after the doctors ran him through.

The first task in setting up a bone marrow donor drive is to find a location willing to host such an event. We were fortunate that our pastor allowed us to use our church hall to host the drive. Once we established the location, I contacted the local National Marrow Donor Program (NMDP) coordinator for our area and we set the date and time for the event. When seeking a location, be sure that the space is large enough to set up registration tables, tables for people to fill out paperwork and a set of tables for volunteers to help potential donors collect the buccal (cheek) swabs.

The NMDP will create flyers for your event and will give you 500 copies, as well. These flyers are very important! We created over 1,000 copies ourselves to put around town. Friends had notices sent out to their church mailing lists and our FedEx driver hung up flyers at all of her business stops along her route. We had a wonderful group of volunteers help distribute flyers

We sent our press releases and contacted the local newspapers, as well. The local paper ran a wonderful piece on our donor drive, which sparked interest by other media such as the TV news and radio stations. Our family was featured on the local news one evening and I was also asked to speak on a local radio station. Churches around town advertized the drive in their weekly bulletins, which was another helpful method of advertizing the drive. The local paper also ran a small piece the day before the drive and showed up at the drive to take pictures for an article. We really had great coverage.