Save the Date, Silent Auction and Fundraiser

Want to have some fun? Bert Beattie is holding a silent auction and fundraiser to benefit The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. The auction will be held on August 26th from 6:00 p.m. until 9:00 p.m. at Yankee Pier located at Santana Row: 378 Santana Row in San Jose, California. Tickets are $50 and include a 4-course dinner, silent auction, and raffle. If you would like to purchase tickets please visit Bert's website. Even if you cannot attend the fundraiser you can still donate to the cause. Bert is also looking for items and gift cards to be donated to the silent auction. Please visit his website to find out about donating an item. Any help you give is always appreciated.


Bert Beattie is in training to participate in the Pacific Grove Triathlon in September as a member of The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society's (LLS) Team In Training. The Team In Training are raising funds to help stop leukemia, lymphoma, Hodgkin lymphoma, and myeloma from taking more lives. Bert's stepfather was diagnosed with small cell Lymphoma over 10 years ago.



For 20 years now, The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society's Team In Training (TNT) has been a sports training program. Participants include first time athletes to seasoned athletes that train for marathons, half marathons, triathlons, 100 mile century bike rides, and hiking adventures.

The Tech Museum Donor Drive

Yesterday was our donor drive for Tami at The Museum of Technology and Innovation (better known as "The Tech") in downtown San Jose, CA. Many of our new registrants and even some volunteers were able to tour the museum for free as the second Sunday of each month is the day the museum has a "Free Day" opening their doors to those who might not otherwise be able to go in and enjoy the many exhibits and interactive areas of the museum.

We added 26 people to the National Marrow Donor Program registry yesterday, 24 of which were people who are ethnic minorities or people of mixed races! Two were Caucasian which is also great because 20% of caucasian patients in need do not find matching donors. But that's not all we did...

The media turned out in force! Here my new friend Paul, who is a member of "Team Matthew.org," is interviewed by a Mandarin reporter who came down to cover the drive for her publication. I was also interviewed by a different paper. We'll be posting links to the articles as soon as they are published. We're so grateful for the media interest yesterday and to Sal Pizzaro from the Mercury News who told his readers about the drive last week in his column. Their involvement is helping us to spread the word far beyond what we could accomplish ourselves.

One of our volunteers, Vicki, was featured in an interview for a local Mandarin TV news program that aired last night. You can see the clip on Youtube. John even got a 1/2 second cameo at the end of the clip :)

The night before I put together a bunch of signs I had printed at Kinkos. I really wanted us to have signs to more easily catch the attention of people entering the museum so that they knew we were there for a purpose. Included on our large signs were Michelle Maykin from Project Michelle.com, Tami and Matthew from Team Matthew.org. I can't tell you how much I appreciate that Team Matthew even sent 7 volunteers to help us out at the drive.

On the back were two "cheat sheets" in plastic sleeves to help out our volunteers who had never volunteered at a drive before. On the left was information about Tami including her condition and hospitalization. On the right were answers to questions about the donor program and registration process.

There was also a small pocket filled with Tami's business cards. They were offered to people who are already in the registry but wanted to help us spread the word by giving the cards to people they know and sending them to the website to order a test kit online. We also gave them to people who didn't have time to stop to register yesterday so that they could order an online kit for themselves.

For those interested, I'll show you how I made our multi-purpose signs in an upcoming post.

Here was my friend Maureen out on the street flagging down passing cars with her sign to let them know something was up. It hadn't occurred to me that we could have people outside so the next time we do a drive I'll create some large, bright arrow signs that simply say in bold letters "MARROW DRIVE TODAY →" that our volunteers can use on the street.

We had 5 tables to work with that day. This was the greeting table where people could approach to ask questions and pick up a testing kit.

This is our friend Vicki who was our "actor" in a PSA video that our friends at Savadelis Films came down to create for us.

Chuck and Jewel spent 3 hours creating a video to show people what it's like to attend a live donor drive. We'll be posting it on the Helping Tami.org website and they are also going to make it available to any patient who would like to put it on their website or blog as well as any donor programs that would like to utilize it. The Tech Museum even requested a copy for their video library!

Other friends from the wedding industry came down to help us out. Here Amy Frugoli from Twitterpated Weddings even brought her hubby James down for a couple of hours. And Jung and Natalie Wi, from Allure West Studios, both got swabbed to help Tami. Also Tami's colleague and friend Edward, and his wife Deena, came out to help us. Edward will have a cameo in the PSA that was shot that day. I'll be sure to point him out when the video is released.

And this is Melany from Shanel's Flowers and Frames. Her specialty is freeze drying and framing bridal bouquets. She swung by on her way to her family's Easter Dinner. Thanks so much for taking the time to come down Melany!

This photo by: Amy Frugoli

Hey that's me, holding a small sign while answering questions this really nice man had about the donor process.

Here's a little photo tour of what attending a live donor drive is like. Here Vicki approaches the greeting table where people receive their testing kit. That's Chuck Savadelis filming her for the PSA. Normally nobody will be creating a movie about you coming down to register. LOL

Step 1: The entire process takes about 10 minutes. A short registration form that is part of the kit needs to be filled out. Here is Deena filling in her form.

Step 2: A coordinator from the AADP will go over your registration form to make sure you are eligible to join the registry. John got the "OK" (and a sticker) to proceed to the next station.

Step 3: Using the mouth swabs takes less then a minute. All in all I heard people commenting they couldn't believe how easy it was to get registered.

I'd like to say a HUGE THANK YOU to all of the people who came down and got registered yesterday to our fabulous volunteers, to Team Matthew, Elizabeth Williams and Roqua Montez at The Tech, and to the AADP for all of their help in making yesterday happen.

Hopefully we found a match for Tami or any one of the 6000 other Americans in need.

Tami's Donor Drive is Today at The Tech Museum!

I was just watching the TODAY show when our local NBC11 news updated and guess what? There was our donor drive on this morning's tv news. Woo Hoo! I had to take a picture of the screen to share with everyone I was so excited about it :)

Hope to see you there today:

The Tech Museum of Innovation
TODAY Sunday April 12, 2009

11:00 - 3:00
The Tech Museum
201 South Market Street
San Jose, CA 95113

CLICK HERE to View More Details

It's Their Public Free Day - Tour the Museum for free after you register!

Printable Flyer for the Marrow Donor Drive at The Tech in San Jose, CA

Just a reminder that this Sunday, April 12, 2009, is the marrow donor drive being held at the The Tech Museum of Innovation in San Jose, CA from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.   For more information regarding the drive there is a blog post entitled Marrow Donor Drive at The Tech in San Jose, CA. 

There is an 8.5 x 11 PDF flyer/sign that can be downloaded and printed to help us publicize the donor drive.  We would appreciate you handing out as many as possible.  This is a high resolution file that will take about a minute to download.

Marrow Donor Drive at The Tech in San Jose, CA

A special bonus: The second Sunday of each month the museum is free to the public, so after you register you can tour the museum for free!

We will be holding a Public Bone Marrow/Stem Cell Donor Drive at "The Tech" Museum in downtown San Jose to try to find a marrow match for Tami. If you are willing to join the National Marrow Donor Program, to try to help save any one of the 6000 people currently looking for a life saving marrow match, you can visit the Donor Eligibility Guidelines on the AADP.org website to make sure you are eligible to be a donor.

Sunday April 12, 2009

11:00 am - 3:00 pm

The Tech Museum of Innovation

201 South Market Street

San Jose, CA 95113

(408) 294-8324

Being tested to join the registry consists of a short form and four mouth swabs. That's it. It's quick and pain free. The standard cost is $52 but thanks to a Federal grant testing for ALL minorities and anyone of mixed ethnicities is FREE at this drive.

Caucasians will be asked to make a $25 tax deductible donation to cover their tissue typing costs.

To understand why testing is free to minorities please visit the Ethnicity page on the Helping Tami website. Also please know we are doing our best to seek additional funding so that everyone can be tested for free at future drives.

Want to help us publicize this drive? To download a 8.5' x 11" flyer that you can print and hand out or hang in your office or place of work to help raise awareness for this donor drive please CLICK HERE.This is a high resolution file that will open in a new browser window and may take 2-3 minutes to download.

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We are looking for volunteers to help with the event.  If you're available, please let us know by leaving a comment if I know how to reach you or by using our contact form to keep your personal information private. I've ordered BIG buttons for our volunteers to wear that day. You can see what they look like below :)

Volunteers are needed to:
- Hand out Flyers – encouraging passerby’s to come check out the drive, learn about donation and consider registering
- Helping to Instruct people how to fill out the registration forms
- Answering Questions at the table
- Help with swabbing

Japantown, San Jose • AADP Donor Drive 4/26/09

Knowing that Tami is most likely to find her marrow match within the Japanese American community is taking me back to my roots. The fact that San Jose has a Japantown at all is special. It is one of three left in the entire country with the other two located in San Francisco and Los Angeles.

Today my hubby and I headed down to Japantown in San Jose. It seemed like a good place to go to see if we could drop off some of Tami's postcards and flyers to local businesses to help spread the word about Tami's website and upcoming marrow donor drive at The Tech Museum on April 12th.

If you've never been to Japantown? You should head down to take a peek at the gift shops and grab some lunch or a nice dinner. Nikaku Gift Shop and Animart have always been one of my favorite places to shop to purchase gifts and origami paper over the years. They have beautiful dishes and a wonderful collection of anime products.

Nikkei Traditions is a newer gift shop that has lots of cute t-shirts, hats, baby items, music and more modern gift items. 

Kogura Co. has a lot of gorgeous dishes and ikebana vases. They also have beautiful Japanese dolls and a nice selection of books and magazines.

Hukilau is where we stopped for lunch. A fusion of Japanese and Hawaiian food, we've eaten there twice and both times the food and service were both excellent.

Banana Crepe has excellent crepes and Hawaiian shaved ice. Also lots of drinks to choose from so stop by on a hot summer day and try them out.

The Nijiya Market is bright, clean and has a wonderful selection of products and produce.

246 Studio Spa is a cute little place tucked between the Nijiya Market and Banana Crepe. They describe themselves as a friendly neighborhood salon. Their services include hair styling, waxing and nails.

The Nikkei Matsuri Festival is Sunday, April 26, 2009. As the Japantown website says: "What better way to share Japanese American Culture, than, through food and the arts! There is something for the entire family at Nikkei Matsuri! Plan to spend the entire day in Japantown.

Our Food Court, features traditional and non traditional Japanese cuisine. Our food is prepared on site and served by local Japanese American non-profit organizations.

The Arts and Crafts Fair includes over sixty arts and crafts vendors from throughout the Western United States and Hawaii. Everything is handmade with a focus on Japanese American tradition and contemporary style. The Arts and Crafts fair features a wide variety of clothing, ceramics, pottery and gifts all uniquely- Japanese and Asian American.

Our Indoor Stage, features Japanese culture through music (koto, shakuhachi), martial arts, and dance (Bando and Hanayagi styles).

Our Outdoor Stage is contemporary and hosts groups like the well-known San Jose Chidori Band (Japanese music), the Wesley Jazz Band, and the San Jose Taiko.

Cultural Displays, such as ikebana (flower arranging), suiseki (rock displays), bonsai (miniature trees and plants) and kimekomi dolls (handmade dolls based on a wooden form) which are a part of everyday Japanese life are shown in the San Jose Buddhist Church Annex. Several schools and organizations are represented in these craft displays, spanning centuries of Japanese tradition."

The AADP.org will be hosting a marrow donor drive at the Nikkei Matsuri Festival at 250 Jackson St. San Jose, CA. from 9:30 AM to 4:00 PM. Sign up to register as a donor or to be a volunteer