A bone marrow registry drive was held from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. on the third floor of the campus center Wednesday. The drive was hosted by the Tufts chapter of the Jewish organization Chabad and sponsored by The Gift of Life Bone Marrow Registry.
One hundred and eighty-three people, the large majority of whom were students, agreed to put their name on the registry, "which is a pretty big deal," senior and head organizer Michael Garshick said. Garshick and seniors Chris Lintz and Jordana Starr co-organized this event.
Anyone who agreed to put their name on the registry was asked to fill out a medical questionnaire, provide some personal information, and go through a medical screening process. In the screening process, people were asked questions to determine if they were eligible to put their names on the registry.
Garshick said people who lived in France, Germany or England for more than six months could not register because of the existence of mad cow disease there.
"Most of the people could donate," Garshick said. "We had 10 to 15 who couldn't."
Once past the screening process, people were instructed to swab the inside of their cheeks with a cotton swab to get a sample of DNA from cheek cells. These samples were sent to the Gift of Life Registry in Boca Raton, Florida.
By adding one's name to the registry, a person requests that he be contacted if it is found that he is a genetic match with someone in need of a bone marrow transplant.
If a person is contacted, he will be asked to participate in a number of steps, beginning with a blood test, and possibly ending with a transplant of stem cells, either directly from the bone marrow or from a newer medical technique involving a blood transfusion.
According to the American Bone Marrow Donor Registry, the odds of a match suitable for bone marrow transplant are one in 20,000. This chance increases if the donor and recipient are relatives.
Freshman Ryan Gendron was one of the last students to sign up. He said he wants to donate because his family friend's son got leukemia. "That kind of woke me up," Gendron said.
He tried to get his friends to attend the drive, but few did. "It's hard for them to get motivated unless they personally know someone," he said.
Fraternity members from Sigma Nu, Zeta Beta Tau, and Alpha Epsilon Pi, as well as volunteers from Tufts Emergency Medical Services (TEMS) assisted in the administering the drive. Garshick was happy with the student turnout.
"There was a continuous flow of people," he said. "We were trying for 300, but 183 is a really good number."
Garshick said the event has been in the works for the past month and a half.
Rabbi Tsvi Backman, director of a local off-campus Chabad House, originally contacted Garshick with the idea for a registry drive, and helped to recruit people, including himself, for the registry.
"Rabbi Backman got the ball rolling," Garshick said.
Garshick said that although this was officially a Jewish drive, they recruited anyone who wanted to put their name on the registry.
Garshick did not rule out the possibility that this drive could be repeated next year, but said that it might not be worthwhile to put a lot of effort into two drives in consecutive years.
"Once you are [registered] you are in until you are 60," he said.
Garshick said that the Gift of Life Foundation helped support the drive with materials to conduct the registration, including cotton swab kits, instructions on how to conduct the drive and medical forms. The foundation also paid for the testing of the cotton swab kits, which cost about $80 each.
Brian Loeb contributed to this article.
