2008 Woodie Awards
SCSU receives marrow donation award
Katye Matthews
Issue date: 11/1/07 Section: News
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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."
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."