By Elizabeth Grady
Promotions Coordinator
Twenty-four hours of teeter-tottering proved to be a success for raising awareness and money for the Gift of Life Bone Marrow Foundation. The event attracted approximately 200 participants and more than $1,000 in donations last Friday and Saturday.
Lauren Caulfield, a senior psychology major, Faith Bain-Lucey, a senior special and elementary education major, and Abbie Milliman, a senior education major, coordinated the event as a part of Students in Free Enterprise (SIFE). All three seniors became inspired when either friends or family received bone marrow transplants.
According to a Feb. 24 feature story in The Bona Venture, every year, 10,000 people rely on an unknown donor for a bone marrow transplant.
“It’s weird because you don’t know,” Caulfield said. “You could be walking next to a person and they could have had a bone marrow transplant.”
The 24-hour teeter-totter event also included select hours when faculty and students could participate in a swab drive.
Although she said the event went well this year, Bain-Lucey hopes to expand on it next year.
“Overall, it went really well, especially in terms of raising the money,” Bain-Lucey said. “We just want to draw a bigger crowd next time.”
Although all three coordinators are students, they will be attending graduate school at Bonaventure next year and hope to continue the tradition of raising awareness of bone marrow transplants.
“We just want the campus to learn about bone marrow, and we don’t want it to stop now,” Caulfield said. “We want to keep it going.”
Caulfield and Bain-Lucey might even try a new approach next year, like an educational seminar.
“We definitely want this to become a tradition at Bonaventure,” Bain-Lucey said. “We want to connect with Gift of Life and make it bigger. It doesn’t necessarily have to be teeter-tottering.”
Caulfield agreed.
“We’re trying to think of fun, unique ways people will want to get involved in, something that people haven’t done before,” she said.
As for this year, the group is proud of the event it planned.
“Thank you to everyone who donated, participated or teeter-tottered. We hope to see you all next year,” Caulfield said.
gradyea09@bonaventure.edu
