Annie’s Army collects swabs for Gift of Life’s bone marrow registry

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After three days of tabling at Syracuse University, Annie’s Army has collected 225 swabs for Gift of Life’s bone marrow registry in honor of Annie Eisner, a former SU student who died in August.

Gift of Life, a ​​​national bone marrow and blood stem cell registry that facilitates transplants for people with life-threatening blood cancer, partnered with Syracuse Hillel, co-educational service fraternity Alpha Phi Omega and the SU sorority chapters of Alpha Epsilon Phi and Sigma Delta Tau for a bone marrow registry “mega-drive.” Annie’s Army is a group of family and friends who advocate in honor of Annie’s legacy and memory.

The organizations swabbed the inside of people’s cheeks to collect tissue samples in the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications — where Annie studied public relations — Monday and in the Schine Student Center Tuesday and Wednesday.

“Our goal is to really have a broad reach, get a broad spectrum of students and staff and people on campus because we’re just looking to help as many people as possible,” said Jodi Eisner, Annie’s mother.

Annie, a rising junior, died after a three-and-a-half-year-long battle with acute myeloid leukemia, a type of blood cancer that begins in the blood-forming cells of the bone marrow. In her two years at SU, Eisner held two swab drives as a Gift of Life campus ambassador.

Jodi said it was hard for her daughter to collect swabs when she was alone at the table, but this week’s mega-drive has seen more success as it was a coordinated effort from many.

“This is just a much more boots-on-the-ground, coordinated effort,” Jodi said.

Rachel Meller, a longtime friend of Annie’s and member of Sigma Delta Tau, wrote in a statement to The Daily Orange that the swab drives reflect the “bright light” of Annie’s character.

“Annie swabbed people because she knew how big of an impact it could have,” Meller, a junior studying magazine, news and digital journalism, wrote. “I remember she once told me that she was actually nervous to go to Schine with her table and swabs because she thought it may be perceived as ‘weird,’ regardless, she went and proudly taught people about Gift of Life.”

Gift of Life Recruitment Specialist Tzvi Greenberg said the organization follows the “five steps to save a life” outline: education and swabbing, tissue type matching, physical examination, donation and transplant.

The registration and swabbing process takes about five minutes. Donors, who must be between the ages of 18 and 35 and in good health, provide a sample of their DNA by swabbing three separate times for about a minute on the inside of their cheeks.

Greenberg said 90 percent of donations, which are collected through a nonsurgical treatment called apheresis, go to cancer patients who are in need of blood stem cells. The other 10 percent require donors to undergo a procedure for marrow donations. Bone marrow donation recipients tend to be younger children who are in greater need of a higher stem cell count, he said.

“You have to consent every step of the way,” Greenberg said. “This is just a five-minute sense to give you that chance to save someone’s life and really save an entire world.”

About one in every 250 donors is found as a match each year, according to Gift of Life’s website. If a bone marrow donation is a match for a patient in need of a transplant, Gift of Life will contact the donor. Then, they have the opportunity to go through the other four steps of the process.

Jodi said she recently received an email from Gift of Life that they found a match from one of Annie’s previous drives, which she said was very exciting.

Rachel Kern, a junior studying public relations, helped collect swabs at Schine Wednesday. As the former president of Annie’s sorority, Sigma Delta Tau, Kern said she wanted to help continue Annie’s mission and honor her life and legacy.

“It feels so rewarding and so special to know that people also want to help and do everything they can to get people registered,” Kern said.

Kern said that she hopes to meet the goal of swabbing at least 4,400 people in the city, which Andrew Eisner, Annie’s father, introduced.

Sigma Delta Tau also hosted a cookie drive on Oct. 1 benefiting Cycle for Survival in celebration of “Annietober,” or Annie’s 21st birthday month. The sorority hosted a small swab drive at the event, Greenberg said, where they collected a couple dozen swabs.

“I am so proud of what the students here have done, and I know Annie would be over the moon if she saw the impact she has had,” Meller wrote.

Several other organizations have also hosted smaller swab drives, including swabbing 91 people at Annie’s memorial service in Hendricks Chapel and drives through Syracuse Hillel and Alpha Epsilon Phi.

Gift of Life and Alpha Phi Omega will host the last day of the mega-drive Thursday in Schine from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Greenberg said they hope to collect at least 75 more swabs to complete their four-day-goal of 300 swabs.

Through Annie’s Army, Jodi said she hopes to accomplish further goals on campus so that SU, where she said Annie spent two great years, can play a role.

“It’s a multifaceted approach from a lot of different angles and that’s kind of how we’re approaching our mission … right now, the goal is to create new treatments for cancer, but also hope to eventually eradicate it,” Jodi said.