By Kennedy Dendy | Broadcast Reporter
Baylor football collaborated with the national organization Be The Match to host a bone marrow donor registry drive on Thursday. The goal of the event was to encourage students on campus to step up and potentially save a life.
As students, faculty and even guests walked by, the team informed individuals of the benefits of being a match and the impact that they can have.
Abraham Ahumada is the president of Be the Match on Baylor University. He said that he was hoping to grab the attention of as many students as possible through this event.
“My overall hope is that we could grab as many students from Baylor University and put them in our bone marrow registry,” Ahumada said. “Once you go through the whole process, you might feel pain in your back for maybe a week but to somebody else that represents their whole life and the amount of years you could add on to it.”
Roxanne Morgan is Be the Match’s Community Engagement Representative for Central Texas. She said they are trying to make their registry more diverse and college campuses are a great way to start the process.
“We look for people to join the registry to help patients who are looking for a cure to leukemia or different blood diseases,” Morgan said. “We really are trying to diverse the registry to help everyone have an equal chance at saving a life.”
Ahumada explained who the organization targets and hopes to reach.
“Be The Match is a national bone marrow donor registry and here on campus we target college-aged students into the drive, because college aged students are what the National Marrow Drive seeks to find,” Ahumada said.
Mansfield, Ohio senior Kazunari Sutton registered as a donor during Thursday’s event. He said that he wanted to help others and felt like he needed to be a resource for others.
“It’s just great to even allow yourself to be a resource and just being able to put yourself out there,” Sutton said. “We are all called to helping and fostering growth within each other.
Desoto junior Xavier Newman is a Baylor Football offensive lineman who helped register individuals on campus. He said that he wants to involve the community however he can and this bone marrow drive was a great way to do it.
“We’re Waco’s team,” Newman said. “We’re not just Baylor’s team. We love the community and we’re here to help on and off the field by winning games or being in community or with the kids.”
To join the donor registry, you can head to Join.BeTheMatch.org/BaylorSaves or text ‘Sic Em Bears’ to 61474.
