When Evan Dolgow joined Gift of Life Marrow Registry on an impulse, he had no idea that he would not only become a marrow donor, but he would also be inspired to volunteer as a supporter of the organization’s lifesaving mission. 

His involvement began in April 2015, while he was an undergraduate at the University of Central Florida in Orlando. 

“At the time I was 19, and was on the Hillel at UCF basketball team,” said Evan. “We went to the University of Maryland for the annual Hillel Basketball Tournament. After the game we were going out to enjoy the festivities and someone at a table by the door asked me, ‘Do you want to get swabbed? You could save someone with cancer.’ I said, ‘Yes, absolutely.’” 

Six years later, in January 2021, Evan got a call from Gift of Life and he learned he was a match for a patient. 

“I was amazed, this was my dream when I swabbed, I almost expected to be called the next week,” said Evan. He donated bone marrow in April, and later in the year provided an additional boost of white blood cells for his recipient. 

But that wasn’t the end of Evan’s story; it was really the beginning. 

“When I do something, I try to get traction and get even more out of it,” he said. “I launched a Go Fund Me as a way of blogging about my bone marrow donation so people would learn it wasn’t so scary and I ended up raising $14,000. Then, someone matched it! I donated $20,000 to Gift of Life, and the rest to other organizations fighting cancer.” 

“Through the blog I engaged with people who wondered why I would give bone marrow to a stranger, or who thought I must have been in bed for weeks afterwards,” said Evan. “It gave me a chance to talk to engage with hundreds of people and talk about the process, explain to them that I walked out of the hospital after donating and went to lunch with a friend. I worked to dispel the misconceptions some of them had.” 

Sharing that message led Evan to wonder, Now, what? Is that it?  

Evan and his parents, Robert and Elise, attended Gift of Life’s Miami Gala in 2021, and he began chatting with the stem cell donor seated next to him, Jared Stein. 

“We got to talking and after a few minutes we put together that he was the person who had invited me to swab at the Hillel Tournament six years earlier,” said Evan.  “Jared told me about his involvement with the Young Professionals Committee, how he organizes events in Boston to fundraise and swab new donors for Gift of Life. He put me in touch with the YP Committee in New York and I got involved with them.” 

This year, Evan is a co-chair for the Celebrating Life New York event, coming up on September 8, 2022, at the Hotel Edison Rooftop Ballroom. This highly popular annual fundraising celebration was on hiatus during the height of the COVID pandemic, so it is expected to sell out quickly. 

Evan, who is entrepreneurial and has been creating businesses since his undergraduate days in college, wants to help give others who have a connection to Gift of Life – former Campus Ambassadors, donors, recipients, and supporters – ways to experience the fulfillment of an ongoing volunteer relationship with the organization. 

“Gift of Life has an amazing mission, an incredible brand, a great story and there is plenty of opportunity to take action beyond donating,” said Evan. “For people of means, it is easy to make a financial contribution, but for us millennials, we don’t have the money yet, so we need to figure out what else we can do.” 

 “We may not be multimillionaires yet, but we are in the business world, we have excellent networks, and we are on track to do great things in our careers,” Evan continued. “These are people I’d like to see engaged with Gift of Life, perhaps, for a start, bringing about more education.” 

To do that, Evan has organized the new Gift of Life Young Professionals Speaker Series, exploring new developments in cellular therapies, and how they relate to Gift of Life’s mission.  This monthly series will held at various locations around the country, and is free to attend by invitation only. Our first speaker will be Nadav Kidron, Esq., Chief Executive Officer, President & Director of Oramed Pharmaceuticals. This event on October 3, 2022 at Gift of Life’s headquarters in Boca Raton, Fla. will be from 6:00 – 7:00 p.m. To learn more about the event or be added to the invite list, please contact events@giftoflife.org.

Evan is determined to spread the word and help grow the registry so more lives can be saved. 

“Gift of Life has more than 400,000 registered donors, but that’s a drop in the bucket of a world population of 7.5 billion people,” said Evan. “We need the registry to grow a hundred times larger to help eradicate blood cancer. If everyone signs up, it will add a bit of humanity to our world, one swab at a time.” 

Evan is a graduate of the University of Central Florida, and currently runs his own warehouse development company in New York City. He is originally from Boca Raton, Fla. He enjoys adventuring with his friends on electric scooters, saying, “I like to go into obscure places and see them with my own eyes.” 

If you'd like to become part of a Gift of Life's Young Professionals Committee in your area, please complete the contact request located here. To learn about other opportunities available through our Volunteer Network, please email info@giftoflife.org.