It's Kevin
This will take a minute, so thank you in advance for your indulgence.
Ingram's birthday is March 13. Mine is the 14th. We had been talking for a while about doing a "birthday bash" at the Alumni House, just a deal for our listeners to get together, drink a cold one or two, and have a good time. In the last month, the plans changed a little bit; I'm writing to ask y'all to come do all that fun stuff on March 13 -- it's a Saturday -- and support a good cause in the process.
In 2003, I had the privilege of donating bone marrow to a little boy with a rare disease. He was then 2 1/2. You can see a snippet of his story at this link (scroll down to GARIN KARSTEN, the little blond kid with jug ears like mine):
http://www.chw.org/displa...F/DocID/40794/router.asp
I'm attaching three pictures below. The first is of his receiving my marrow, the actual transplant. The second (uh, I have no idea where he got that Auburn hat, his being a Wisconsin resident and all, move along, nothing to see here) is a picture of him two months later, when his family took him out in public for the first time. The third is his baseball picture from last summer. He's 8 1/2, and in complete remission.
I got that last picture from his mom, via e-mail, the Friday before the Super Bowl. I talked to Ingram about it, and we decided that this is the way we want to do our "birthday bash" (that's starting to sound lame).
Twenty bucks a head, beer and food, and Alyson Adcox will play and sing. We're also asking folks to be "typed," and sign a form to be placed on the National Bone Marrow Registry. It's a non-invasive procedure: They just swab your mouth with a....well, a "swab," I guess.
In the next two weeks, we'll be talking this thing up on the radio. There will be some TV coverage as well. While I've told many of my friends about the experience of marrow donation, it's not a topic on which I've sought publicity. The last thing in the world I want is people thinking I'm pushing a look-at-what-a-good-guy-I-am story. But the fact is that because I signed up for the National Marrow Registry in 1994, there's a kid playing baseball today at the age of 8 1/2, who started taking chemo when he was one.
So, we're gonna push this thing. And we want you to come, and we want you to sell a few tickets if you can. As I said, we'll be rolling the details out starting next week, with a big push the week after. The SEC tournament will be going on, so it's a good time to come to Alumni House, anyway. Bring yourself. Bring a date. Sell some tickets. Get on the registry. Drink some beer.
And other cool stuff.
Thanks a lot.
Kevin
