On Feb. 14, a day that was already full of so much love, the St. Bonaventure University Love Your Melon Campus Crew added some more by holding a Valentine’s Day themed swab drive the LYM Crew named “#LoveYourMatch.”
“Love Your Melon is partnered with Be the Match, a nonprofit organization that matches patients with donors, educates healthcare professionals and conducts research so more lives can be saved,” explained Leah Rennie, the Love Your Melon Crew Captain.
#LoveYourMatch was also in coordination with our Her Campus chapter and the National Marrow Donor Program, and hoped to encourage registration for the bone marrow transplant registry. The swab drive was a tremendous success, with almost 60 new individuals added to the registry. The event simply required filling out a registration form, a swab of cheek tissue, placing the swabs in a package, and handing them over to be sent off to hopefully find a match. Katie Sinclair, a 2016 Bonaventure graduate, recalled the significance of the experience and said, “Attending a bone marrow drive at St. Bonaventure back in 2015 was one of the best decisions I’ve made because it later gave me one of the greatest opportunities of my life: the chance to donate bone marrow to a young girl who needed it to survive. It only takes a few minutes out of your day to attend a drive and swab your cheek, but those few minutes could mean the life-saving answer for someone who needs it most.”
The drive ran from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. in the McGinley-Carney Center for Franciscan Ministry and saw a stable flow of possible donors willing to add themselves to the registry throughout the entirety of the event. Michael Garbin, a representative from Be The Match, operated by the National Marrow Donor Program, was stunned and said, “The largest number from any Love Your Melon event [he] has held in Upstate New York.”
The SBU Love Your Melon campus crew is focused on spreading knowledge, awareness, and improving the lives of the children battling all types of cancer through sales of beanies, other merchandise, and events such as #LoveYourMatch. Both SBU chapters of Love Your Melon and Her Campus are eager to begin planning more helpful, successful events like this aimed at helping others in need through the assistance of our wonderful student populatio