William Murphy
  • Political Science
  • Fly Creek, NY

William Murphy Helps Organize Gift of Life Bone Marrow Registration Drive

2015 Nov 25

William Murphy of Fly Creek, NY, helped organize a highly successful Gift of Life Bone Marrow Registration Drive on the SUNY Oneonta campus in October.

The Gift of Life Bone Marrow Foundation was founded in 1991 with the goal of finding bone marrow matches for those suffering from life-threatening illnesses, including leukemia, lymphoma and other cancers and genetic diseases. The foundation has now registered over 230,000 volunteer donors and helped facilitate more than 2,700 bone marrow transplants for patients in need.

Murphy is a member of SUNY Oneonta's Zeta Beta Tau fraternity, which co-sponsored the Bone Marrow Registration Drive with the Gift of Life Foundation. Last year, the two organizations collaborated on a similar event, which was the first of its kind in the Central New York region. More than 150 student volunteers from Greek organizations and Student Association clubs helped with this year's drive.

"The event was extremely successful this year," said Russell Lowe, vice president of Zeta Beta Tau and president of the college's Inter-Fraternity Council. "This drive was nearly nine times the size of an average drive. We registered 358 new potential donors and raised almost $200 for the Gift of Life Foundation, surpassing last year's event by almost 30 people. This was incredible, because you can only register once, so in the past two years Oneonta has had more than 700 people register for the Gift of Life!"

The brothers of the Zeta Beta Tau - Epsilon Nu Chapter at SUNY Oneonta played an integral role in planning this event. "This is a wonderful event that promotes a good cause," said Angie Eichler, SUNY Oneonta's associate director of campus life. "There is no doubt in my mind that SUNY Oneonta students will save lives by participating in this effort."