WALK TO HELP FIND DONORS
By Joyce Rudolph

Burbank Leader
Monday, October 05, 2009

Organizers hope to raise awareness of how people can save lives
through donating their bone marrow during the fourth annual Walk of
Life today at Verdugo Park in Glendale.

The event is organized by the Armenian Bone Marrow Donor Registry,
which was founded 10 years ago and is a nonprofit organization
that recruits matched, unrelated donors for bone marrow
transplantations. The organization maintains a registry and data
bank of information about donors and matches them with transplant
recipients.

The registry has received a number of referrals from patients in
Glendale who have leukemia, said biochemist Frieda Jordan, the
president and founder.

"Their last hope of survival is to have a stem cell or bone marrow
transplant," she said. "Therefore, it’s important for the Glendale
community to get involved and get tested to see if they can be matched
with the patients."

advertisement The unique genetic makeup of Armenians makes it nearly
impossible to find matches among the existing international registries,
Jordan said.

The registry helps patients find donors all over the world, including
non-Armenians, she said. And it is part of the National Marrow Donor
Program, which is the American version of the Armenian registry,
Jordan said.

"We work in conjunction with them to find matches," she said.

The registry officials created the Walk of Life to get families,
friends and local schools involved, Jordan said.

Teams of walkers from Glendale, Burbank, Pasadena, Van Nuys and
Montebello will participate in the walk, including 10 schools from
Glendale.

Participants can register at the organization’s website or between
8 and 9 a.m. today at the park.

The 5K/10K walk-run begins at 9 a.m.

There will be many related festivities throughout the event, said
Burbank resident Armond Ag airman of Walk of Life. He is one of 20
people on the organizing committee.

Leading the warm-up exercises will be trainers from the Burbank
Athletic Club.

There will be live musical entertainment, food donated by Porto’s
Bakery and McDonald’s and more than 20 vendors.

The event is sponsored by Glendale Memorial Hospital & Health Center
and cosponsored by the city of Glendale; Glendale Water & Power, which
provides the bottled water; and for the first time Bank of America.

People can also come to the main office to be tested, at 3111 Los
Feliz Blvd., Suite 206, Los Angeles.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress