a little and a lot

Tuesday, May 01, 2007

Short, Sweet, and Important

The event that is consuming my time (including blogging moments) and prayers:
BONE MARROW DRIVE FOR ETHAN POWELL
May 13 (Mother's Day) @ Highland St Church of Christ (Memphis, TN)
8am - 1pm
Must be 18-60 and in good general health
Samples taken through 4 mouth swabs--no blood taken!

Ethan Powell is an almost-5-month-old St Jude patient being treated for leukemia. Ethan's parents, Ben & Becky, took him to the doctor for his 2-month routine checkup, and his cancer was discovered. They have been at St Jude here in Memphis ever since. Ben has visited Highland several times over the past few months, always full of faith and petitioning prayers. Ben & Becky are a young couple. Ethan is their very first child. This nightmare is a reality they are living through, all the time praising and glorifying God. They now have 45 days to get 2 million bone marrow samples to have the best odds at finding Ethan a match for a bone marrow transplant. For more info on Ethan, visit: www.ethanpowell.com.

You can do 2 things to help:
1. Give a bone marrow sample at a local donor center or drive. Many drives are being held nationwide from May 7-21 because they are being sponsored by the National Marrow Donor Program. Giving a sample consists of swabbing your mouth in four different areas with four different Q-tips. You are then entered into a National Registry, which is constantly searched for matches. Finding a match is rare--I have been in the registry for almost ten years and have never been contacted. But who knows? Maybe you are Ethan's match! You could save his life! To find a donor center or learn more about bone marrow donations & transplants, visit: www.marrow.org.

2. Click HERE and download a letter to Oprah. In order to get the word out to the most people possible, Ben has a goal to petition Oprah to call the need for bone marrow donors to national attention. Her viewers are loyal, and if she says, "Go give that bone marrow sample!" then they will do it. 2 million donors...voila! The hope is that with enough requests, Oprah will be moved to take action.

Send the printed and signed letter to:
Oprah Winfrey
Harpo Productions
110 North Carpenter St.
Chicago, Il 60607

Even better, why not print/copy a bunch and pass them out with the address to friends, family, your church, your workplace, your child's school...?

So that's the story. Please help in these two ways!

12 comments:

Tesney said...

I'm glad y'all got one going in Memphis. Did you have any trouble setting it up? I ran into a couple of roadblocks but thankfully they got worked out. Ours is the 20th. God is good!

Amy S. said...

Hey Jesse! This is Amy Stevens, Matt Neely's sister. You helped me out by sending me some info. about bone marrow drives a few weeks ago. Just wanted to let you know that FINALLY we got one going. Fully funded and everything. Tesney is right. God is SO good. I'm following the updates of Ethan today and am just devastated but know God is in control. He is bigger than cancer and he hears our prayers!

Tesney said...

How did it go? I'm curious.

angie c said...

Where are you, absent blog lady!

Katie Land said...

like I have any room at all to talk...but please post something new!!! This is so unlike you... are you sick or something?

Tesney said...

Jesse, I'm really worried here. No word in over a month!? What gives? Did facebook or myspace suck you in? Come home, Jess, come home.

Anonymous said...

i'm missing you too! (it's always better to see you in person, but i love your blogging!)

Amanda's News said...

Need a new post from you!

Blessed said...

OK, so everyone else already said it, but I've missed your blogging too.

If you are looking for an idea, I'd love to tag you to do your top 5 restaraunts. It's fun to think about and would be great if any of them were "new" to other bloggers so that we could try them. Just an idea.

Unknown said...

come on Jess. Bring it.

Ashley said...

I'll join the crowd...where are you? I know I've seen you in person- but I miss the virtual you! PS- when do you want to see Pirates?

Ashley said...

maybe you are just trying to see how many comments you can get without actually posting anything!


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