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STORIES

AEPi and Queens Hillel Recruitment Drive a Success

Mar 29, 2010 by Gift of Life News
Expanding Gift of Life’s recruitment efforts to new college and university campuses has been an on-going effort, and one that has required the commitment and tenacity of those already involved with Gift of Life. Since a potential donor may remain in the registry from the age of 18 until his/her sixty-first birthday, college students in particular, have a long time of availability to save a life. Therefore, it makes sense for college students to get tested.

Long-time supporter and Drive Coordinator, Ryan Levey, of Toronto, knows this full well. Ryan, with the help of his team of volunteers from York University, has run numerous, and quite successful campus recruitment drives on behalf of Gift of Life. Ultimately, they were responsible for the registry gaining well over 300 new donors, on-hand to save a life if called upon. With the success of his own campus drives, Ryan now reached out to his fraternity brothers in AEPi as well as Queens Hillel, and they expressed a genuine interest in running a recruitment drive of their own. When asked about what he would say to other groups looking for guidance, Ryan said, “All it takes to run a successful drive is organization and a passion to help save someone’s life. Each drive that we have run has brought our brotherhood and community closer together.”   The news that AEPi and Queens Hillel would run a drive in cooperation with one another was especially exciting, as it would be the first one ever on that campus.

AEPi and Queens Hillel Drive Coordinator, Niv Yahel, is a soft spoken yet driven individual who was prepared to make the most of this opportunity to not only shed a positive light on his fraternity and their social action activities, but also to spread the word about Gift of Life’s mission to save lives and make every effort to grow the number of young, viable donors in the registry. When asked what motivated him the most, Niv said, “I think to make the most out of the university, it is important I don’t just do well, but spend my time outside of the classroom getting involved. Gift of Life gives people the opportunity to find out if they are a match by doing something as simple as filling out a form and swabbing their cheek. This is definitely going to become an annual event.”

The AEPi and Queens Hillel drive was held on March 16th and a total of 410 people were tested that day. Jay Feinberg, Executive Director for Gift of Life was quoted as saying, “The fact that these AEPi chapters have shared their common philanthropic goal of helping people in need, and then included the campus Hillel group as well, makes them truly a special group of individuals. We are thankful that one chapter has reached out to another and asked them to join the Gift of Life family.”

If you are a member of a fraternity or sorority and would like more information about running a drive on your campus, contact Shayne Pilpel, Gift of Life’s Recruitment Coordinator at 561-982-8344 or by e-mail at spilpel@giftoflife.org.