FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact:
Erin Jones
Hillel Around Chicago
erinjones@juf.org
(w) 312-673-2350

This Holiday Season, Give the GIFT OF LIFE!

Hillels Around Chicago works with local Hillels and The Gift of Life Foundation to host city-wide bone marrow donor drives.

This December, Hillels Around Chicago will partner with The Hillels of Illinois and The Gift of Life Bone Marrow Foundation to hold donor registration drives throughout the city. The large-scale bone marrow donor drive seeks to register 2,000 new donors and find a match for Katie Maecham and other people dying of bone cancers around the world. Katie is a 26-year-old Jewish woman fighting Hodgkin's Lymphoma. Of the 12 million people registered on blood marrow registries world-wide, no one is a match for Katie.

“[A person’s bone marrow type] is inherited, like eye or hair color,” explains the Gift of Life website. “A patient's best chance of finding a genetic match is someone who shares the same ethnic and geographic ancestry.” Because of the six million Jews murdered during the Holocaust, many Jews in need of blood marrow and stem cell donations cannot find a match among their immediate and extended family members.

Gift of Life, a non-profit organization, specifically targets the Jewish community to increase the number of genetically Jewish donor registrants on blood marrow donor registries. Today many Jews, unable to find a donor match within their own families, have been able to find a match by widening their search to the larger world Jewish community.

Donor registration drives will be held at locations around Chicago throughout December. Because of a generous grant from the Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Foundation, all donors registering before December 31, 2009, can register, free of charge, at the Hillels Around Chicago and Gift of Life drives.

About Donor Registration: Donor registration is a quick and painless procedure requiring only a donor registration form and a swab sample of the cells on the inside of the cheek. These cells will be used to determine tissue type. If a person is determined to be a possible donor for a patient in need, further testing will be done by medical professionals. Donors registering with Gift of Life will remain in the donor registry until their 61st birthday. This confidential registry can be searched by doctors all over the world, and has already saved thousands of lives. For more information about bone marrow donor registration, please visit the Gift of Life website at www.giftoflife.org.

Local Gift of Life Bone Marrow Foundation Drives:

December 1, 8–9 p.m.
Birthright Participant Registration @ JUF
30 S. Wells St., 6th floor
Chicago, IL 60660
(312) 673-2350

December 2, Noon–4 p.m.
Loyola University Hillel
Mundelein Center-Room 821
1020 W. Sheridan Road
Chicago, IL, 60660
(773) 508-2193

December 2, 4–7 p.m.
Temple Beth-El, Northbrook, IL
3610 Dundee Road
Northbrook, IL 60062
(847) 205-9982

December 3, 11 a.m.–2:30 p.m.
JUF/Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Chicago (EMPLOYEES ONLY)
30 S. Wells St., Rooms 6117-6118
Chicago, IL 60660
(312) 673-2350

December 4, 10 a.m.–3 p.m.
UIC Hillel
Levine Hillel Center
924 S. Morgan St.
Chicago, IL 60607
(312) 357-6922
Chicago, IL 60607

December 6, 8:30 a.m.–1:30 p.m.
Emanuel Congregation
5959 N. Sheridan Rd
Chicago, IL 60660-3643
(773) 561-5173

December 6, 11 a.m.–1 p.m.
Anshe Emet Synagogue
3751 N. Broadway
Chicago, IL 60613-4104
(773) 281-1423

December 9, 10 a.m.–5 p.m.
Spertus Institute of Jewish Studies
610 S. Michigan Ave
Chicago, IL 60605-1901
(312) 322-1700

About The Gift of Life Bone Marrow Foundation:
Headquartered in Boca Raton, Florida, Gift of Life is one of the nation's public bone marrow, blood stem cell and umbilical cord blood registries. Through its life-saving work, Gift of Life is a world leader facilitating transplants for children and adults suffering from many life-threatening diseases, among them leukemia and lymphoma. 
 

About Hillels Around Chicago:
For a decade, Hillels Around Chicago has enriched the lives of Jewish undergraduate and graduate students in the greater Chicago area, and serves these seven campuses: Columbia College Chicago, DePaul University, Illinois Institute of Technology, Northeastern Illinois University, Oakton Community College, Roosevelt University, The School of the Art Institute Chicago. The Hillel Arts in the Loop, an initiative of Hillels Around Chicago, connects students to Jewish religion, culture and traditions through the Arts. Hillels Around Chicago also sponsors a Russian Hillel initiative which provides specialized programs for Russian-speaking college students.

About The Hillels of Illinois:
The Hillels of Illinois, a partner in serving our community, is supported by the Jewish United Fund/Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Chicago and Hillel: The Foundation for Jewish Campus Life.