Every 4 minutes a baby, adolescent, or adult is diagnosed with a blood cancer like leukemia, and for thousands of these patients, a bone marrow or cord blood transplant may be their best or only hope for a cure. Yet 70% of patients who need a transplant do not have a fully matched donor in their family. Patients who have a young donor have the best chance of transplant success. Donors can be their cure.

Be the Match at Calvin is an extension of a nation-wide non-profit organization committed to helping those with blood cancers and other blood diseases become matched with potential bone marrow donors. This small act of a bone marrow donation can help a patient beat their sickness and continue living their life as a healthy individual. Be the Match is devoted to encouraging students to register as available donors and to inform the Calvin community about the organization and its mission as a whole.

“Be the Match for me has been a big step into understanding how one small act of kindness, such as donating blood (or in our case, a big act of donating bone marrow), can not only save one individual’s life from a blood disease, but can inspire others to do the same,” said Arielle Veenstra, activities coordinator of the organization.

Be the Match hosts at least one registry drive every semester, with a table set up in Johnny’s with registration forms and mouth swabs set up to sign students up. However, students don’t need to wait until a registry drive to sign up to be a potential bone marrow donor! Students are always welcome to contact Stephan Buiter (sjb55) to be put on the registry.

In previous years, Be the Match has participated in hosting drives and volunteering at events such as the Zombie Dash, a 5k race where participants are chased by zombies for motivation to raise awareness for the Be the Match campaign, and Light the Night, a 5k evening walk benefiting The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society (LLS) and their funding of research to find blood cancer cures.

Two years ago, Be the Match brought The Maze to Calvin. The Maze is a faith-based magician with his own Be the Match story. This year, while the organization will not be able to bring The Maze back, Be the Match plans to expand its influence to more parts of the campus, from being present at UnLearn week to setting up registry drives at the multiple blood drives that Calvin holds.

Be The Match  can also be the  perfect opportunity for students in the pre-health professional programs to gain some health-related community service all the while volunteering for an important health cause.

The organization’s president, Stephan Buiter, said, “The reason I joined Be The Match as a freshman is because I was astounded by the cool opportunity it provided for me to be involved in the medical community: using my personal communication skills, passion and excitement to help a community in need — all while not having any certificate, baccalaureate or medical degree.”

For others, this cause is personal. Kayla DeWyn, secretary of the organization, said, “…Now that my little sister has cancer and I understand the pain and fear that goes along with that, I appreciate Be the Match so much more. Taking one day to donate and feeling like you have the flu for a week is literally all it takes to save a life. How amazing is that?”