My friend the Gastronaut is throwing a party on Sunday for the National Marrow Donor Program.

Live music! Beer! Helping sick kids!

At the event, he’ll be registering people to become bone marrow donors—which, as best I understood from the explanation I drunkenly received a few nights ago, basically means you just give a couple cell swabs from the inside of your cheek, fill out some forms, they file your info away, and then if some kid is dying of leukemia and you happen to be a genetic match, you get a phone call. Apparently donating bone marrow is not actually horribly painful, nor does it involve having incredibly large needles jammed into your spinal cord, and….:

Every year, at least 30,000 adult and children are diagnosed with leukemia, neutropenia, aplastic anemia or other fatal blood diseases. Only 30% of patients in need of a marrow or blood cell transplant find a matched donor in their family. The other 70% may turn to the National Marrow Donor Program to search for an unrelated donor. Genetic matches outside of the family are literally a one in a million chance; when you become a Donor Volunteer, you may become someone’s winning lottery ticket, and save a life!

I think there’s gonna be a silent auction, as well as live music from Red Ray Frazier, Invisible Rockets, Blue Horns, Henry Dark, and Jesse Young and Friends. And did I mention helping sick kids, and beer?

Green Dragon Pub and Bistro, 928 SE 9th, Sunday May 18, 3 pm-11 pm or so