In 2004, Alpha Epsilon Pi International Fraternity (AEPi), a leading Jewish college fraternity, launched a partnership with Gift of Life Marrow Registry to raise awareness among college students about the life-saving potential of blood stem cell and marrow transplants.
The partnership has now resulted in more than 20,000 donors joining the registry and nearly 100 lives saved. A recent drive at the University of South Florida proved to be the location of the 20,000th swab.
Over the course of a week at USF, students staffed a table located outside of the student center registering nearly 400 students.
“I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude and congratulations to AEPi for swabbing over 20,000 individuals and adding them to the registry – a remarkable achievement that brings hope to those in need of life-saving matches,” said Alexa Greenstein, president and founder of the University of South Florida Gift of Life Club. “During my three years at USF, the Psi Phi chapter (of AEPi) has been unwavering in its support of our mission to swab to save lives.”
Kameron Basis, president of the AEPi chapter at USF, said “It’s great that the 20,000th registrant came from here. We are a part of this huge AEPi network that has accomplished so much over the last 20 years. We have been able to help save lives. I know that our Brothers will be involved with Gift of Life for years, both on campus and when we graduate and move into different communities.”
Rob Derdiger, AEPi’s chief executive officer, said, “While Jewish college students are facing unprecedented antisemitism and hate on their campuses, to see our young men working so hard to save lives is stirring. Our 20-year partnership has helped save nearly 100 lives and, at the same time, it has inspired so many others to live their lives to support others.” AEPi operates chapters on more than 150 college campuses in the United States, Canada, and Israel.
A patient is diagnosed with blood cancer every three minutes and the lifetime probability of receiving a stem cell or marrow transplant is just one in 200, indicating the need to increase the size of the donor pool.
“We are grateful for the incredible impact of our partnership with AEPi,” said Jay Feinberg, Gift of Life Marrow Registry Founder and CEO. “The enthusiasm and dedication shown by these young men in organizing swab drives across campuses nationwide has truly made a difference in the lives of blood cancer patients and we look forward to continuing this partnership to save even more lives in the years to come.”
Gift of Life was founded following a successful bone marrow registration campaign to save Feinberg’s life. Diagnosed with leukemia in 1991, a major difficulty in locating him a donor match was the small pool of Jews of East European descent in the registry that existed at the time. Other ethnicities experience similar issues in locating a suitable match. The registry’s initial impetus was to add diversity to the marrow donor rosters. To learn more about Gift of Life Marrow Registry, visit www.giftoflife.org.
