The Mall of America had already come to life ahead of its official 10 a.m. opening on Saturday thanks to the World Marrow Donor Day celebration hosted by Minneapolis-based Be The Match and the Mall of America.
Saturday's event brought bone marrow and blood stem cell recipients and donors together to celebrate inside Nickelodeon Universe, the Crayola Experience, and the mall even allowed participants to get a sneak-peek inside the mall before opening to the general public.
Along with honoring donors and recipients, Be The Match and the Mall of American set a goal to register 30,000 people for the donor registry, in honor of the mall's 30th birthday.
"Be The Match facilitates every unrelated bone marrow or blood stem cell transplant in the United States," said Joy King, Chief Advancement Officer of Be The Match. "This year we'll do it over 7,000 times."
Saturday's event included a livestream thanks to LANFest, a non-profit organization that helps host community gaming events.
According to King, 50 percent of the Be The Match transplants are international, meaning either the donor or the patients are located outside the U.S.
"It really is an international effort and we have the unique opportunity and privilege to serve every patient in the United States that needs a marrow or blood stem cell transplant."
Joining the registry is simple and involved only a few steps.
Participants swab the inside of their cheek and send the swab to Be The Match. It then takes about six weeks to search for a patient who may need the donation.
"Nearly 80 percent of the time, donating is like a specialized blood donation," King said. "On your day of donation you go into a collection center and we give you an IV in one arm, take out the blood and stem cells, and give you back everything else that the patient doesn't need. Then you are on your way. Around 20 percent of bone marrow donors do go through a surgical procedure where bone marrow is extracted from the hip bone."
Be The Match wasn't exempt from COVID-19's impact. For instance, they couldn't recruit new donors at community events that are typically held on college campuses.
Collecting bone marrow and blood stem cells and delivering them to patients was also impacted, but King adds they never missed a single transplant since March 2020.
"Since that time we've facilitated more transplants in a single year than we have in our 30 year history," she added. "More patients have need us during this time, but not due to COVID. You think about travel restrictions and the fact of half of what we do has an international component, literally everything we do was impacted."
Be The Match encourages anyone between the ages of 18-40 to register to become a donor. More information about joining the registry, or making a monetary donation, can be found here.
People may also get a free swab kit sent to their home by texting "jordanagreen" to 61474.