Hapa Happenings

It's been a Hapa-intensive week for me.

I joined "Team Krissy" at a bone marrow drive at Cal State Long Beach on Wednesday afternoon. It was exciting to see how the volunteer team works tirelessly to sign up minorities and mixes (and even European whites) for A3M and the National Bone Marrow Registry. We're hoping that one of our new recruits will be the match for Krissy Kobata, a 26-year-old Hapa who needs a bone marrow transplant.

This is the way we swab our cheeks. One Long Beach student works four swabs at the same time. The girls take a more traditional, one-swab-at-a-time approach.

I drove from Long Beach to the Landmark Theatres in West LA to see the screening of Half Kenneth, a beautiful film about two Hapa brothers who become orphans while they're interned at Manzanar during World War II.

Tonight, I'm going to the Mixed and Matched Concert and Bone Marrow Drive at USC and will, once again, join Team Krissy and A3M in recruiting potential donors for the Registry. Hapa Athena Misa's PSA about the need for multi-racial donors will be shown at tonight's event. You can view it here. (Krissy and I are interviewed in the clip. Just don't make fun of my bad-hair day.)

Finally, my new friend Bill and I are co-captains for the Pasadena Relay for Life for the American Cancer Society on May 30-31. Our theme is "Mutts for Marrow," and, once again, our goal is to draw attention to the need to sign up minorities and mixes for the Registry. You don't have to be a mutt or a minority to join us for an hour or for 24 hours during the Relay. And, if you sign up, I may even let you borrow my dog bone tiara.