Boner Donor Bingo at RT: Call for Assistance

Late last year at Posner's book signing for EIKAL, I learned about SuperAmit's battle to find a bone marrow match after he was diagnosed with acute leukemia. Through social media, he found a donor, but the facts I learned about the bone marrow registry and the lack of donor matches for minorities was eye-opening.

You might have seen the Maccabeats' video for Hanukkah (I featured it here as a Friday video) also sought to raise awareness for the bone marrow registry and the need for more matches to help save the lives of people who have leukemia.

Over the winter, I decided to do something to raise awareness in the romance community, and I reached out to Romantic Times, who were totally awesome and very excited – and they've partnered with DKMS for this year's conference.

My idea was to host a bingo game during Romantic Times – Boner Donor Bingo, in fact. And this is where I would like to ask for help!

If you are an author or reader, and would like to donate a prize for the bingo game, please email me at sarahATsmartbitchestrashybooksDOTcom. I'm hoping to have at least 9 prizes anticipating at most eight to ten rounds of bingo during the game (time and date to be announced). I already have two prizes but if you'd like to donate a prize, please contact me. 

If you are an author or reader who will be at RT and would like to volunteer during the game, please email me at sarahATsmartbitchestrashybooksDOTcom. I'll need a few people to help me run the game, and possibly accept and properly package cheek swabs while folks are playing bingo. That would be the cheeks up TOP, not the ones down below!

If you are going to RT and you like bawdy games and candy with the chance to win prizes please come join our bingo game! I promise we won't make long speeches and bore the crap out of you, unless me saying “O-69” is too dull.

Even if you don't want to donate, just learning about how bone marrow transplants happen can help. Some folks have heard that the process to donate bone marrow is hideously painful – it's not. There's no drilling of bones or anything like that.

Here is a very cute person to tell you about how donation happens if you're a match:

 

I know so many romance authors and readers have been affected by leukemia, and I know it's something that's been present in romance novels as well. I wanted to do something fun to raise awareness that will hopefully increase the registry by a few more cheeks (heh) and provide a fun activity at RT – with candy, mayhem, bawdy jokes, and merriment.

Special thanks to Alyssa Day, Cindy Holby, and Victoria Dahl, who hosted “Bad Boy Bingo” in Ohio in 2010, and asked me to call the game. I had so much fun (and the room was totally full!) I wanted to do it again, only with a few more really bad puns.

I hope, if you're coming to RT in Chicago, you'll stop by for bingo, or just to be cheeky. 

Categorized:

Romantic Times

Comments are Closed

  1. FairyKat says:

    Ohhh, the cutez!  Just RTd.

  2. Kim in Hawaii says:

    Great idea!  Just sent you an email with my offer for a prize and assistance!

  3. MissB2U says:

    I’m in!  Wish I could be there ‘cause I know it will be a rollicking good time.

  4. JoAnn says:

    A substantial number of donor samples can not be tested for a match due to a lack of funding. It costs $54 to process each sample. Please consider giving to the Bone Marrow Foundation at giftoflife.org to sponsor one (or more!) tests.

  5. Chrissy D. says:

    I registered ten or fifteen years ago, and have faithfully updated my many changes of address in the years since. I have not yet been called on for heroics, much to my chagrin.

  6. Susan/DC says:

    Like Chrissy D, I registered about 15 years ago.  I did get called once, but when they did further tests I wasn’t a good enough match.  Maybe someday . . .

  7. Anonymous says:

    As I am unable to register as a donor, I took your suggestion. One more sample will be able to be processed.

  8. Janet McConnaughey says:

    Finding matched donors for sickle cell disease also is a problem.
    http://bit.ly/ABs28x 

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