Hundreds of children gather for holidays in Chinatown, Be The Match recruits more future bone marrow donors

(SAN FRANCISCO) BeChinatown’s annual toy drive took place on Dec. 16 at the Waverly Place in Chinatown. Members of the frontline responders and law enforcement have participated in this annual event as volunteers for years to bring joy to the children and the community.

The Asian law enforcement also held a Be The Match recruitment drive in this year's toy drive to encourage more young people to register as future bone marrow donors in the national database to save lives of blood cancer patients.

Lily Lo, Co-founder of BeChinatown, started the Chinatown Toy Drive 4 years ago and continued it as an annual tradition to give away toys to the children from low income families. 40 volunteers from Chinatown Volunteer Coalition organized more fun programs during the toy drive to make it a more family event to celebrate holidays.

The SF Asian Firefighters Association has raised funds to have their own toy drive at the same event to give away more toys for the children. A total of 1,500 toys were distributed by the Asian American firefighters.

Other participating agencies included the San Francisco Police Department, Sheriff's Office and California Highway Patrol.

Most recently, a Chinese American member of a federal law enforcement agency was diagnosed with leukemia. Be The Match has coordinated with Asian law enforcement members to host two stem cell registration drives during holidays in San Francisco Chinatown to encourage more Asian Americans to sign up as potential donors of bone marrow for blood cancer patients, in particular for the Asian American patients.

Be The Match is the national non-profit marrow donor program founded in 1986 and based in Minneapolis, Minnesota. It operates the Be The Match Registry of volunteer hematopoietic cell donors and umbilical cord blood units across the country for patients who need transplants to save their lives.

The number of Asian Americans who joined the registry has been low. Two recruitment drives would be held in San Francisco Chinatown during the holidays.

First recruitment drive was held at the Chinatown Toy Drive on Dec.16. Central Station police officers joined the registry.

Next drive will be held on Dec. 23 at the Book Talk event co-hosted by APA Family Support Services and All American Medical Group (AAMG) at 520 Grant Avenue.

The best stem cell donors are young Asians aged 18 to 40. The Book Talk is a free event open to the public.