Students, community come together during bone marrow drive

In the midst of face painting, food stands and performance troupes during Communiversity on Saturday, about 120 University students — including groups from the cheerleadering team, eating clubs, Agape and diSiac — joined local volunteers at a bone marrow drive organized to find a match for a local high-schooler with lymphoma.

A ninth-grader at Princeton Day School, Andrew Coles was diagnosed with the cancer last August and, after recently coming out of remission, has been searching for a suitable donor for a marrow transplant.

Saturday's drive at the Community Park School, which was the second local event put together by the Coles family to find a match for the 14-year-old, drew a total of 600 volunteers from the Princeton area.

"It was a real cross section of the community," said Robyn Coles, Andrew's mother. "There were students, local residents and a lot of people from African-American churches in Princeton."

The Coles will not know whether a suitable donor was found at the drive for another two to three weeks, when all the results of the weekend's collection will be added to the National Bone Marrow Donor Program's registry — spreading the reach of potential donors from the University nationally. But Robyn Coles remains optimistic.

"It's scary to think we can't control what happens, but I believe that it will work out and that we are going to save many lives," she said in an interview last week.

At about 11 a.m. — one hour after the bone marrow drive opened — John Matsui '04 was volunteer number 151 to have his blood tested and added to a national registry of potential donors.

One of 20 Agape members, many of whom had met earlier in front of Dillon Gym and headed to the test site together, Matsui noted that the experience represented the true Communiversity spirit both in the makeup of the volunteers and on the issue itself.

"The variety of people was amazing: you had 30- and 40-somethings with their children, a bunch of college kids, a group that seemed to be [Andrew's] high school friends helping out and then health care professionals volunteering," Matsui said. "It really showed the community coming together for one cause."

Other students noted the efficiency and warmth they received from volunteers and the Coles.

"I felt like the family was so warm and welcoming and just thankful for what we were doing," said Annie Gaines '03, captain of the cheerleading team.

Tables lined with chocolate chip cookies, animal crackers, donuts, and punch awaiting volunteers after being tested. They were given white pins marked simply "It only takes one" — the name of a foundation the Coles have started to help other families organize similar drives.

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But for most, just the principle was enough satisfaction.

"We may not be Andrew's match," Agape president Cole Barfield '03 said, "but the possibility that one of us matches someone else and can help to serve others is wonderful."