How to Get Involved With There Goes My Hero
Being a Hero isn’t limited to just joining the national bone marrow registry. There are a multitude of ways to support blood cancer patients and There Goes My Hero. As we begin the new year, we wanted to share some of the ways that you can get involved beyond joining the registry.
One of the best ways you can support There Goes My Hero is to volunteer, participate, or attend any of the several events we have scheduled throughout the year! Hero is always in need of helping hands. Volunteers are crucial to us living out our mission of saving lives, providing hope, and helping those impacted by blood cancer. Attending or participating in Hero fundraising events is a great way to stay involved too. For example, you may order a Winter Box of Joy during the holidays, play golf at the Bob Bell Annual Golf Tournament, attend HeroPalooza in October, participate in MasterClass throughout the summer, run in the Greater Baltimore Chamber of Commerce Miles That Matter 5K, come out to local registry drives, and attend other events that pop up throughout the year. The attendance of our Hero community at these events is what helps to make them be a success, and many are family friendly! If you are interested in learning more , please email elena.manco@theregoesmyhero.org.
As a non-profit a monetary donation of any amount is a tremendous way to support Hero, and our mission of helping those impacted by blood cancer. Financial donations to Hero support the Hero Fund, which helps to cover the unanticipated costs of cancer treatment by providing meals during treatment, medically tailored meals post-discharge, transportation, parking, and copays to Baltimore-area blood cancer patients and their families during treatment. There Goes My Hero also collects donations for Hackerman-Patz house, which provides temporary short-term housing for eligible cancer patients and their families that receive treatment at Johns Hopkins University.
Hosting a bone marrow registry drive is an excellent way to support blood cancer patients! We are always looking for opportunities to grow the national bone marrow registry, and the best way to do that is through registry drives. Anyone can host a drive – you, the company you work for, organizations and clubs or any local community event. Hosting a drive is super easy, and we will be there to support you every step of the way. “Have swabs, will travel”, as Mary Kaye, Hero’s Executive Director likes to say. If you or your company has an interest in hosting a drive, please email elena.manco@theregoesmyhero.org. There Goes My Hero will assist the host on details of the drive and provide the needed materials to make the event a success. If you are concerned about COVID, Hero also offers the opportunity to host drive-through drives! If you have a parking lot, you have an easy opportunity for a COVID safe drive!
Telling your friends, family, and co-workers about Hero is one of the most useful ways to get others involved. Word of mouth helps us gain notoriety in the community and can lead to a host of new opportunities for patients, their families and for There Goes My Hero as an organization. We rely on our community to help spread our mission. Without our amazing Hero community, we would not be able to do what we do!
If you are unable to join the national bone marrow registry, we hope the above opportunities provide you with alternative ways to support blood cancer patients and be a HERO. We encourage you to reach out to us and use this post as inspiration for ways to get involved with There Goes My Hero!