Americana Jam Saves a Life!!

Not only were we able to raise $67,122.40 for the Braunfels Foundation Trust at this year's 18th Annual Americana Music Jam at Gruene Hall, we were also able to assist in saving a life! Kathy Flynn, with Love Hope Strength, set up a tent at the event sponsored by Gruene Hall and 92.1 KNBT to register potential bone marrow survivors, and it was there that she was able to MATCH a donor to a patient!! Only 1 in 541 people in the United States are ever matched, so we are overwhelmed that we were able to make this happen at the Jam. 

A little more about the wonderful organization who made the match...

Basically, Love Hope Strength does bone marrow donor drives at rock concerts. It is a great, painless way to get involved in the war on cancer.

Registering is simply filling out a form and doing a painless cheek swab. It takes about two minutes. But if someone is found to be a match for a patient, they go through more intensive testing to find out if they are healthy enough to actually donate. Donation is MUCH easier than people think... in most cases (about 85% of the time) it involves a few days of injections, a bit of soreness as the bone marrow makes more cells than it needs and then spills the extra cells into the blood stream. Donation day is a few hours and a couple of movies. And the incredible opportunity to extend a life when nobody else can!

Most of the patients who need stem cell / bone marrow transplants never find a match, because less than half of them have a match on the registry. About 40(ish)%.  We hope you will register to be a donor at the next Americana Music Jam in May. Who knows how many more lives could be saved!