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How to Organize a Drive

Here's some information on how to schedule a marrow drive. It is really easy to do!!
AND PLEASE DON'T FORGET...TO PUT THE DRIVE IN VINAY'S NAME (EVEN RETROACTIVELY FOR THOSE COMPLETED) - THAT'S HOW THEY EXPEDITE RESULTS FOR HIM!!

  1. Find a location where you can setup couple of tables and few chairs. Location should be preferably be indoors or at least covered. It’s best if you know if a large Indian gathering of some sort is going to happen where lot of people will turn out. Make sure you check out the venue first and ensure the organizers are giving you a table.
  2. Contact appropriate agencies SAMAR or (MATCHPIA) for East Coast and AADP for West Coast, Asian Marrow for South West and setup a date and time with them. Make sure you give them enough notice and let them know the expected turnout.
  3. Campaign about the drive in local community - send out emails, put printed flyers and posters (see samples) at places of interest.
    Download Flyer (MS Word): National Flyer | SAMAR Flyer
  4. Have a few people to help you during the drive when people show to sign up. Remember if you choose a social event where people may be eating or drinking, you need to have people drink water/rinse their mouth.
  5. During the drive, talk to interested people explain them the situation. Here is what I usually say.

    "You might have heard of Vinay on TV or via emails. Vinay is currently suffering from a type of Leukemia, a type of blood cancer. The only hope of his survival is to find a bone marrow donor. The only problem chances of a match is very rare, about one in a million, mainly because there aren't many Indians or Asian's registered on the national registry and only an Indian can help another Indian. That is why we are doing this drive right here to sign up as many POTENTIAL donors as possible. The registration process is extremely simple. All you have to do is to fill out a form and give a sample of your saliva. It will take 10 minutes of your personal time but you could actually save a child's life. This is completely free, no cost involved. It’s a pure donation all it costs is a little bit of your personal time."

Some of the other facts that might come handy while persuade people

  • When a Caucasian is looking for a match they find 15 matches on an average where as opposed to an Indian they might find one match or none.
  • This can happen to anyone at any age and god forbid if you get into similar situation then this will be the only registry that will come to rescue.
  • There is no such registry in India and when an Indian kid is looking for a marrow match this registry is the only resort.

Volunteer functions

  1. Talk to people at booth.
  2. Help people fill out the forms.
  3. Pre screen the forms filled out by people.
  4. Help people take the cheek swab test.
  5. Print out volunteer pledge form to take with you.

Files for Volunteers:

Here are some more useful links