Dear Families,
This morning at community Scott and Louise’s class presented a great play adapted from Monica Brown’s Waiting for the Biblioburro. Bravo! Our students also started yoga this week with our longtime yoga instructor Sherry. Next week is a short week; Wednesday is a full day of school, there is no school on Thursday and Friday for Thanksgiving Break.
One of our PreK students from last year has fallen critically ill with severe aplastic anemia and is in need of a bone marrow transplant. His parents Evan and Jennifer are asking for anyone 18 to 40 years old who have any interest in saving a life like Micah’s to sign up to be tested and added to the national registry. Please see below his message for a note from his parents with more information.
It’s getting cold out! Our students will still go outside to run and play in the cold, so please ensure your student dresses in layers and wears a warm coat when needed. Please label their coats, sweaters, hats, and gloves with their names! The lost & found is located in the second floor hallway right outside of the hydroponics lab. It is overflowing with lost coats, jackets, sweaters, water bottles, and more. Please come to check the lost & found area by Thanksgiving break – items not claimed will be donated to charity.
Upcoming Dates:
Warmly,
Maria
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A note from Evan and Jennifer Reynoso Ng, Micah’s parents
“In late August our 5 yr old energetic, silly, Cars/Bluey/Paw Patrol loving Micah was diagnosed with severe aplastic anemia, a rare blood disorder that is life threatening if not treated. He currently relies on weekly (or more) blood transfusions to remain stable and has been in and out of the hospital (mostly in) for various complications the last 6 weeks.
The only cure for aplastic anemia and other serious blood diseases is a bone marrow transplant. In priority order, the best donor options usually come from: a sibling, an unrelated donor with matching genes, a parent, and lastly an unrelated donor with partially matching genes. Donor matching is often correlated with ethnicity, so unfortunately we did not have much success with the national registry due to Micah’s dual minority ethnic makeup (half Chinese half Dominican, whereas the vast majority of donors in the registry are Caucasian).
There are many other families with similarly difficult situations, particularly families of color as ethnic minorities are underrepresented in the national registry. If you’re between the ages of 18 and 40 and interested in a chance at saving a life like Micah’s, you can sign up to be tested and added to the national registry at: http://www.nmdp.org/get-involved/join-the-registry
Some details to know:
– You should only do it if you are willing to donate to a stranger. As much as we would appreciate people testing just for Micah, they do not perform testing for a single patient (outside of immediate family)
– You can always decline to donate if you match someone and you can remove yourself from the registry at any time
– Getting tested simply involves a home kit where you swab the inside of your cheek with a q-tip”
