Be the Change

I know you were all expecting a blog post about Patient Communications – I will post it soon. Many of you have seen the tweets about Joella’s blog. For those of you who haven’t she was a beautiful little two year old girl who was suddenly diagnosed with Leukemia, and passed away on Sunday. I read the inspiring blog posted by her family, and prayed for them. The “Doer” in me kept saying what more can I do to help? I was talking to my tree hugging hippie little brother about her and he said “Bo, why don’t you join the Bone Marrow registry?” The brilliant scientist that I am – I replied “Grant, I am all ready an organ donor on my driver’s license” After he quit laughing he said “Dude, Bone Marrow is like a renewable resource in your body.” Since he used to work for the Red Cross – I thought he could be correct. So, two weeks ago – I started my research. Like every good geek I started with Wikipedia – which is never wrong – and it confirmed Grant’s statement. Then I found www.marrow.org if you haven’t been to this site I encourage a visit. I registered on the website – they sent me a 4 pack of swabs – I swabbed my mouth at my Kitchen table – then sent it back in their postage provided envelope. Let me assure you – I don’t like needles, blood, or IV bags – I am a soccer mom with 4 very active little boys and in my spare time I run two companies. Time is not in grand supply, and I am not a big fan of pain. However, if one life is saved – it’s all worth it.


Be the Change is a movement that transcends financial ability, race/ethnicity, and even religion. Though I do believe in my faith it’s a directive not a recommendation.

I was inspired recently by the move of KC Sporting – our local soccer team. Soccer, unlike many sports, has few borders and internationally reaches into all socioeconomic levels. KC Sporting recently named their new stadium LIVESTRONG field, the first time in history a professional sports team has taken a not for profit as their field namesake and not the sponsorship of a major company. For those of you who don’t know – two of the team’s owners are men who started Cerner. If prideful ambition had been their desire, they could’ve paid homage to their achievement and we could’ve had Cerner Field. Instead they chose to be leaders of change and part of a larger social awareness movement.

So, how do you plan to live your life in a way that demonstrates the change to society you want to see. You can tell a bucket of water to overflow – you can point your finger and speak beautiful words to the bucket and it will never overflow. You can actively pour water into the bucket and watch the results occur. Teaching, Preaching, and Telling will not inspire movement – Acting, Living, and Being create movement.

Being the Change does not require you to give masses of money, it does not require you to give hours of time, but it does require you to stop and make a conscious decision to make an impact on the lives of others.

Sometimes all it takes is a cheek swab…..
http://www.marrow.org/ click the link get the swab