Day Plus 49 (TODAY!): A Community Party With Food Trucks and A Chance To Save A Life

Last month someone we may never meet gave Oliver a chance to defeat leukemia by donating bone marrow that was then transported to Salt Lake City and transfused into Oliver's blood stream. This was possible because months or years earlier this person had registered with the National Bone

Marrow Registry through Be The Match.

The registry is necessary because the donor's body needs to be similar in several important ways to the recipient's body. Doctors use ten factors to judge compatibility and Oliver was lucky enough to have a donor who matched on all ten.

Registering to be a potential donor is volunteering to give someone like Oliver a chance to replace a cancerous immune system with a healthy one. There is a risk it won't work but, in almost all cases, there is no chance of survival without it.

TODAY at the Party In The Park at Canyon Rim Park there will be a booth where people between the ages of 18 and 43 can get their mouths swabbed and sign up to be on the National Bone Marrow Registry. If you can't come to the Party today, you can learn how you can sign up for the registry at Be The Match. It is something you will never regret doing.

If you do make it out to the Party today, besides signing up to potentially save a life, you can be part of a celebration that our friends and neighbors have spent hours upon hours to make happen. It is a little crazy what they have put together. There will be free inflatables and games, food trucks, a huge raffle with everything from homemade jam to a river rafting trip, a silent auction with items including $100 Gift Cards and Blendtec Blenders, and hundreds of other people who are rooting for Oliver!

Oliver will be soaking up the love and energy a few miles north from his room at Primary Children's Hospital, but will still definitely be there in spirit.

We thank everyone who is making this happen from the bottom of our hearts!