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Decade-Old Project Life Adds 311 More Davidson Names to National Marrow Registry Project Life co-chair Katie Bond (l) and volunteer Shannon Reidley provide staff for the recent registry drive. Complete with stickers and service with a smile, the campus group known as Project Life successfully concluded its 10th anniversary blood-typing drive recently. Its efforts at fund-raising, t-shirt sales, signage and advertising attracted 311 members of the Davidson College community to donate a pinprick of blood for registration in the National Bone Marrow Registry. If their blood type matches that of a cancer victim at any time in the future, the new registrants could end up saving a life. The students, faculty and staff who ventured to the College Union Morrison Room on November 16 and 17 were greeted with bagels and soft drinks. Nurses from the American Red Cross drew the necessary blood sample and sent the donors on their way. Project Life is a student-directed organization aimed at increasing the number of potential donors on the National Bone Marrow Registry. The organization, currently co-chaired by Brent Ferrell and Katie Bond, was founded at Davidson a decade ago by David Lindsay, a Davidson student who himself had a transplant and wished to help other patients in need. Bone marrow transplants are critical in saving the lives of many people suffering from more than 60 fatal diseases including leukemia, aplastic anemia, and breast cancer. Physicians throughout the United States and the world can easily access this registry and identify individuals who might provide marrow to heal their sick patients. At least 10 typed volunteers from Davidson have been matched in the past, and undergone the medical procedure to donate a small amount of their marrow to a someone in need. Since the first Project Life drive in the fall of 1989, more than 3,000 people have been typed at Davidson. Though typing a single person costs $75, Project Life has raised the necessary funds as a free service to the public. Project Life hopes to fund another drive in the spring targeting minorities within the Davidson community. For questions regarding Project Life, contact Rosie Molinary, the Community Service and Bonnor Scholars Coordinator, at (704)892-2298. For more general information on bone marrow donation, visit the National Bone Marrow Program's website. Story by Jim Swansbrough # # # Top of Page