A member of the Trinity College community is giving the gift of life this holiday season by donating blood stem cells to someone in need. Donor registry recruitment events on campus have led to five donations of blood stem cells in five years, with the most recent donation made in mid-December.
Trinity is part of the Get in the Game program led by the global nonprofit NMDP (formerly known as Be the Match and the National Marrow Donation Program), which uses the influence of college athletics to recruit students to join the NMDP Registry as potential blood stem cell donors. A simple cheek swab adds Trinity students to a database that matches donors with people facing blood cancer or other blood disorders.
Head Football Coach Jeff Devanney ’93, P’25, who brought the Get in the Game program to Trinity in 2021, said that the effort began with a tent staffed by student volunteers from the football team and has since expanded. “In our second year, we partnered with the men’s and women’s squash teams, and then last year [Director of Student Leadership and Engagement and Greek Life] Mike Bodnarik got Greek Life students involved,” Devanney said.
Each spring—usually a day in April—stations are set up at various locations across campus for the registration event. NMDP covers all the costs, planning, and logistics. Prior to the event, an NMDP representative makes sure the student volunteers are trained to educate and register their peers. “Greek Life sets up on Vernon Street, and the football and squash teams are at Ferris Athletic Center and Mather Hall,” Devanney said. “We ask the players and other volunteers to sign up for a shift throughout the day. It’s easy for them to talk to other students as they’re walking by, and say, ‘Hey, maybe you can save a life.’”
Devanney said that Trinity’s registration events have added 666 potential donors to the database. While NMDP informs Trinity about the number of matches and donations made through the College’s recruitment events, the donors remain anonymous.
According to NMDP, more than 375 college and university athletic teams participate in its Get in the Game program, which has registered 218,000 students as potential donors. More than 1,400 students have matched with a patient and donated their healthy blood stem cells to someone facing a blood cancer or disorder, NMDP said.
Devanney first learned of this program from Andy Talley, the former head football coach at Villanova University, who began his mission to educate and promote awareness about joining the registry in 1992. The Andy Talley Bone Marrow Foundation teamed up with NMDP in 2008 to form Get in the Game.
“Andy started this with his football team at Villanova. He had the idea that we have all these football teams across the country with 100 young, healthy males who could be potential donors,” Devanney said. “He retired years ago, but he is still involving other college coaches in this effort, which has grown beyond football. It’s a very good charity to get behind and it has a major impact.”
The Get in the Game program is one of the ways in which Trinity athletics supports the community on campus and beyond. “We’re always trying to provide opportunities for our players to give back,” Devanney said. “The football team also serves lunch to people at Mercy Housing and Shelter in Hartford every Wednesday.”
Director of Athletics and Recreation Gavin Viano said that community involvement and giving back are staples of the student experience at Trinity. “The efforts of these Bantams on behalf of NMDP’s Get in the Game program are both impactful and inspiring,” Viano said.
NMDP is a global nonprofit leader in cell therapy that helps to drive research, treatment, and support to cure blood cancer, blood disorders, and more. Learn more here.
