Communication studies students at SCSU have earned the National Marrow Donor Collegiate Award for the success of their annual donor recruitment drives.
The National Marrow Donor Program (NMDP) has awarded SCSU students and faculty for their display of "a high level of commitment in raising awareness, recruiting donors and saving work of the NMDP."
The communications department became involved with the NMDP when communication studies professor Daun Kendig was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma and required a transplant.
"We didn't really know anything about stem cell and bone marrow transplants or the registry until our friend and professor had need for a transplant," SCSU professor Diana Rehling said.
Kendig was matched with a donor through the NMDP, and because of a transplant, she lived to spend another year with her young daughter before passing away from the disease.
Later, Rehling and the communications department wanted to give back to the NMDP, which had added precious time to Kendig's life.
"At that point, we decided, kind of as a gesture of thanks for the registry but also as an act of empowerment, to do a registration drive," Rehling said. "Once we started doing the drives, we saw the multiple goods that came of them, and we just kept doing them."
Since then, the communications department has sponsored annual bone marrow and stem cell donor drives on campus in conjunction with the NMDP for the past seven years.
A committee comprised of communication studies students and faculty organizes and operates the drives in the Atwood Ballroom each spring.
As the project's faculty leader, Rehling has been very active in coordinating the donor drives, but says it is the level of commitment and hard
work from the students involved that make the drives so successful.
"Taking this project on each year is a huge time commitment and it's all volunteers," said Rehling. "No one gets paid or receives credit."
SCSU student, Kati Rothstein, was one of the volunteers working for the donor drives last spring.
Rothstein, and members of the SCSU Comm Club, visit CMST classes to present speeches on marrow and stem cell donation to promote the drives.
"We really just ask people to sign up out of the goodness of their hearts," said Rothstein.
The speeches place emphasis on awareness and service to others and are aimed specifically at students because young adults, 18-30 years of age, are the best donor candidates.
Volunteers urge people to register because the more people that are on the registry means better chances of finding a genetic match for transplant recipients.
In spring 2007, the department recruited its 1000th donor. The NMDP has reported that at least seven of the recruits from SCSU have become donors and a number of others have been matched as potential donors for certain recipients as well.
The next donor registration drive has been set for April 8th, 2008 in the Atwood Ballroom and volunteers like Rehling and Rothstein are already hard at work to make it happen.
"At the end of the registration drives I think we all feel an amazing sense of accomplishment and pride," said Rehling. "It feels really good to know that we have done something that may really impact others' lives in such a significant way."
To learn more about the NMDP and becoming a donor, visit www.marrow.org.
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