See It: The Community being helped
One Child's Dream / Driving For Donors was started by 11 year old Leukemia patient Pat Pedraja. Pat found out that so many people with Leukemia and other blood disorders are dying becuase they can't find bone marrow donor matches in order to get a transplant. There is a critical need for donors (especially minority donors) on the National Marrow Registry and most people don't know how easy it is to join the Registry. Pat set out to raise awareness about the need for marrow donors and started a National Marrow Drive to add 2007 donors to the National Marrow Registry. Pat and his family drove across the country in an RV, to 32 different cities in 3 months and held marrow donor drives. There is a fee for tissue typing to add donors to the Registry so Pat raised over $140,000 by selling ad space on his bald (from Chemotherapy) head! Pat added over 5500 donors in 3 months and is continuing doing marrow drives, raising money and promoting awareness about the need for marrow donors. One of his drives already found a match for someone, so he has saved one life! Pat is working with people all over the country who want to start Driving For Donor campaigns in their area. Pat is also presently working on starting a National Project called Driving For Donors:BE A HERO which will be used in schools and other organizations to get kids involved. The program will teach young people about blood disorders, the need for marrow donors and how kids can make a difference by donating THEIR time and/or own money to help someone else.
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Build it: Steps taken to create the project/org and the kind of impact made
Vital Stats
| Started On: | 05/01/07 | Ended On: | |
| People Involved: | Over 6000 people joined the Registry and 100's of people from across the country worked on the drives. | People Impacted: | over 50 million people heard about Driving For Donors in the last 3 months through media projects |
| Money Raised: | over $140,000 | | |
Do Something! Get Involved
Related Cause: Cancer
Project Updates:
Pat won the CNN HEROES Viewers Choice Award in NY on December 6, 2007 for his work with Driving For Donors!
He has added over 6500 new marrow donors as of December 2007.
We received so many emails from people around the world wanting us to come to their location to hold marrow drives, we decided that this year we are doing DRIVING FOR DONORS 2008 INTERNATIONAL TOUR! He plan to hold marrow drives in over 35 states and 25 countries internationally.
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