Dear Friends, Colleagues, and Family,

In October 2008 I received a letter from the Gift of Life Bone Marrow Foundation indicating that I was a potential match for a bone marrow transplant with a 57 year old male with Acute Myeloblastic Leukemia. A man, who at the time was the same age as my father, was suffering from a life threatening disease and needed a bone marrow transplant to survive. It's likely that his family was tested and no match found, so he and his doctors turned to the National Bone Marrow Registry.

It turned out for this 57 year old man that not only did he have one hero waiting in the wings, but he had two. Another registered donor who miraculously also matched this recipient also agreed to a transplant to save this man's life. My personal journey to commit the ultimate good deed, or mitzvah, came to a momentary close. It started four years earlier with a simple swab of my cheek at a Shabbat Dinner at Hillel at the University of Virginia (obviously my friend Gabe and I went for the free meal), but ended with a bittersweet moment -- I couldn't save this man's life, but he was saved nonetheless.

About 6 months ago I started getting anxious. I still wanted to help. My gift was not given. Just knowing that I was a match was NOT enough. I had to do more. Maybe my purpose wasn't to be a match, but to start something bigger. Dayenu, a Passover song, reminds Jews to be grateful for the gifts the Jewish people were given (escaping bondage in Egypt, receiving the Torah, etc.). And if we were only given one of those things, "it would have been enough," as Dayenu means. I thought to myself, "Sam, just saving one life, just swabbing, just agreeing to take blood samples, just saying you would donate, it all would have been enough." But it wasn't enough.

And so I called up Gift of Life and suggested that we start a Young Professionals Committee in New York City, where the highest population of Jews outside of Israel resides. I wanted to specifically target young Jewish people who maybe didn't have Hillel at their school facilitating drives (or giving out free food), or didn't go on Birthright, or weren't "Jewish-enough" to even think about going to a place where Jews congregate in the first place. At my first Gift of Life Volunteer event I met Rachel Bobrow, a girl whose sister received a life-saving bone marrow transplant through the foundation. And the rest was history. Rachel and I pitched the executives at Gift of Life on a Young Professional Committee, and here we are 6 months later with a full board of committed and enthusiastic people who have been similarly touched by Gift of Life.

We're launching our very first campaign, and in our first "swab-a-thon" we aim to add 350 potential donors to the Gift of Life bone marrow registry over the next three months as well as raise the $54 needed for processing each new registered donor. My personal goal for this initiative is to raise $3,000 and personally add 10 potential new donors to the registry (unfortunately, I do not have as many Jewish friends having attended The University of Virginia -- if only I listened to my high school guidance counselor and went to Brandeis!).

Please help me reach my goal by joining the registry and/or donating to the cause (100% of funds raised go directly towards paying the cost of processing the kit). Lastly, this is the only charitable effort for which I solicit donations. While I understand that these haven't been the best economic times, I would ask you to consider this effort as one of your own.

Thank you.

Sam Rosen