Mu Tau Mu of Alpha Chi Omega

Have you ever considered joining the National Bone Marrow Registry? It is a fairly simple process that could save a life. From Ann Marie ZU ’83: “5 1/2 month old Trevor Kott had been diagnosed shortly after birth with a rare form of leukemia called congenital acute myeloid leukemia (AML). His family is asking for help from the community. A bone marrow transplant is little Trevor's only hope at recovery and I am urging you to go to your local blood bank to see if you might be a tissue match. This is a PAINLESS procedure- you simply take 4 swabs to the inside of your cheeks then the blood bank will forward the samples to a lab for at National Marrow Donor Center . Please check out the Kott family's website for additional information and to read more about what you can do to help at http://www.trevorkott.com This little guy is a fighter – he was only given a couple weeks to live and has totally beaten the odds, but the clock is ticking and without a match, his days are numbered.

“Please remember: YOU could be the one in a million match for little Trevor!!”

To find a local center where you can register: http://www.marrow.org/HELP/Join_the_Registry/Join_in_Person/index.html?src=text

To register online: http://www.marrow.org/HELP/Join_the_Registry/Join_Now/join_now.html?src=text

To learn more about how the bone marrow transplant process works from a patient’s perspective watch this video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sK0rWV1MnZk made last year by Christine Pechera. She found a partial match last July and after spending most of last fall in the hospital is now in remission from non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. A bone marrow transplant saved her life!

see the extended version of this message here.

Congratulations to Kelly ZU '00 on her graduation and recent wedding! See the details and photo here.

And thank you Kelly for holding a fundraiser to benefit two of our sisters who are participating in major philanthropies this summer. See her flier at http://axomtm.squarespace.com/glow/ to learn all about it - and participate if you are in the Cleveland area!

One of the things we love doing at MTM is learning more about the philanthropies our Alpha Chi Omega sisters support. Nikki ZU ’88 is a volunteer with Room to Read in the DC area. Room to Read builds and stocks libraries in underdeveloped areas of the world, and focuses on the education of girls (did you know that of the 770 million people in the world who cannot read or write, two-thirds are women?).

Here is what she has to say:
"I've talked about my volunteer time with Room to Read with many of you. John Wood, Founder and CEO will be featured on Oprah tomorrow, 4/3/2007 http://www.oprah.com/index.jhtml . Watch it, DVR it, Tivo it.

"Or if you're in the area, come on over to my place (see here for details) Saturday April 21, from 2:30 pm - 5:30 pm to view it and learn more about Room to Read. I'll have information and a couple of other chapter members to talk about the programs; as will I. It'll be an open house so come and go as you please.

"Please RSVP if you are coming. The weather will be nice (hopefully) and it'll be a great way to start the warm season.

"Now, I'm a believer in Room to Read and what they do. To learn more, check out www.roomtoread.org. But also, I'll match any donations made on the 21st (up to a certain point :-)). My focus is always sponsoring girls in India."

From: Room to Read info@roomtoread.org

"We are incredibly excited to announce that John Wood, our Founder and CEO, will be a guest on "The Oprah Winfrey Show" scheduled to air on Tuesday, April 3rd.  The episode will feature individuals who are truly making a difference in the world.  This is an amazing opportunity for us to reach a wide audience and share John's story and the mission of Room to Read.  But wait, the news gets even better...  She will be issuing a challenge to her audience to support our work through a book drive through Oprah.com, which will raise funds for new local language books and libraries!"

Please join us in sending (double) Congratulations to Briana ZU '99 on her recent wedding and on successfully defending her dissertation! Photo and details are here.

We received a very nice thank you note and photo of the whole chapter from the sisters at Zeta Upsilon for our help with Recruitment earlier this semester. View it here. [We provided and delivered food for the pre-Recruitment Workshop in January, helped with a meeting room for the workshop, and helped with nametags for Preference Day.]