After their tremendously successful bone marrow drives last year, the Yeshiva University Student Medical Ethics Society (SMES) has come up with a fresh twist for this year's on-campus recruitment program. B.A.M!!! also known as Bone-marrow Awareness month is a multidimensional initiative that is designed to encourage and educate students about the importance of registering as potential bone marrow donors with Gift of Life.

 

By partnering up with the Center for the Jewish Future and SOY Seforim Sale, SMES plans to continue expanding its efforts to recruit new donors for the Gift of Life registry.

 

B.A.M!!! will consist of four strategically placed drives throughout the month of February. The first two drives will take place at the annual SOY Seforim Sale (Feb. 3rd and 15th). These first two drives will focus on recruiting from the crowds of community members that the book sale attracts to the YU campus.

 

The next B.A.M!!! event will be in the form of an educational lecture titled "The Halachic Hero: How far must one go to save a life?" SMES will be hosting Jay Feinberg and Dr. Edward Reichman in a session that will grapple with the ethics and halacha (Jewish Law) of saving a life. This event will take place Tuesday February 17th 7:45 and be followed by a mini drive.

 

The final phase of B.A.M!! will be the all day bone marrow drives. This last effort to recruit Yeshiva students will consist of two simultaneous drives; one on the Uptown Wilf Campus and one on the Midtown Beren Campus. These drives will be running on Wednesday February 18th from 10:00am-7:30pm.

Throughout this jam-packed month SMES will be taking extra measures to increase awareness about the need to sign up onto the bone marrow donor registry. The students will be implementing the use of flier posting, e-mail blasting and other creative marketing techniques to accomplish this goal of increased awareness.

Despite the difficult economic times and in light of recent financial debacles, SMES feels that now, more than ever, it is pertinent to double the efforts in student activism. Greed and corruption have crippled our economy; and it is the passion of these talented students, tomorrow's leaders, that will aid in restoring the integrity and credibility we desperately strive to see once more.

 

By Avi Amsalem, President
Yeshiva University Medical Ethics Society